Dobby's Return
by Hahukum Konn
Summary: Dobby the house-elf has been granted his chance to help Harry Potter after dying at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange, by going back to the summer of 1992.
1. Chapter 1

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby the House-Elf could not believe he was being so honoured by the Fates. He had died saving the great Harry Potter, and no greater glory could be had in his opinion.

But he was being told something impossible! Inconceivable! For a lowly _house-elf_ to be permitted the glory of saving Harry Potter's life - again!

He would be allowed to return to his own life, just after he had found out about the horrible diary of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and was desperately trying to tell the great and noble Harry Potter about the horrible and dangerous plans his Master was going to accomplish.

He said the only thing he could possibly say: "I is willing to return to save the Great Harry Potter sir!"

His existence _whoosh_ed in a giant swirl of light, and he was at Malfoy Manor...

/\/\/\/\

Dobby hid himself in the library, forcing himself to hear his Master once again explain to the bat-like Severus Snape what he intended.

"Severus, I have heard... unsettling rumours about the Dark Lord."

Snape's acidic, gravelly voice responded: "Lucius, you know better than I what's going on. If you think any of the students, or, for that matter, the Headmaster, deign to tell me anything worthwhile, by all means take my job. Otherwise, you might as well ask me if I gave the Dark Lord a detention."

Lucius was holding up a diary. Dobby wished so fervently to grab the diary and rush away with it, hide it in the darkest corner of the world he knew, but no house-elf could disobey his or her Master. Even just thinking his thoughts was positively dangerous for a house-elf.

He said, "Well, I may have to think on what the Dark Lord might wish me to do. I was entrusted with this some time before his untimely demise."

Snape said, "What of it? If you're done wasting my time I have to give Draco his supplementary Potions tutoring. That's what you pay me for."

Lucius sighed. "Very well, Severus. But I am giving you fair warning: the Dark Lord said that if ever the Mudbloods should become too troublesome, this would help open the Chamber of Secrets."

Snape snorted. "Rubbish. It's a fairy tale. They didn't even find it last time. I'm sure the Dark Lord was speaking metaphorically."

Snape swept out of the library room, and Lucius seemed to be thinking for a whlle. Finally he placed the diary on the table, and barked, "Dobby!"

Dobby instantly popped into view of his Master, and said, "What can Dobby do for Master sir?"

"Wash my bedroom window. It was smudged last time you cleaned it. And shut your ears in the oven for that, afterwards."

Dobby nodded fervently. "Dobby shall do as you say!"

He popped away, and began cleaning the window, as instructed. Strangely, however, when he finished he didn't feel the compulsion to punish himself as he had in his old life.

Dobby wondered if he might be free already! He could save the Great Harry Potter!

But he would have to pretend to be the Malfoy house-elf; he could do this for Harry Potter, helper of house-elves.

/\/\/\/\

Dobby remembered, last time, that he had been in the garden of Harry Potter's house and then popped to his bedroom. This time, he decided to simply go directly to the bedroom and wait. He quivered in anticipation of helping the Noble Harry Potter in his quest to defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Oh, it had been so terrible those last two years of his life - always wondering when the house-elves at Hogwarts might be ordered by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to shut their ears in the ovens, or bang their foreheads against the stone walls of the great castle, or throw themselves in the lake, or any number of other punishments devised by the cruel Death Eaters.

Dobby could remember when his Master ordered the kind Tibby, too kind she was, to be bitten by a great snake because she hadn't cut one string off Master's robe properly. He had heard from the Rosier family house-elf how his Master had cast the horrible Cruciatus Curse on him. Those days before the great Harry Potter had vanquished He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were dark days indeed.

Dobby must keep those dark days from happening again!

The bedroom door opened and Harry Potter stepped in. It was all Dobby could do to stop from crying out in joy at seeing him once again.

Quiveringly, he said, "Dobby has wanted to see you, sir... it is such an honour, it is..."

"Th-thank you," said Harry. "Who are you?"

"Dobby, sir. Dobby the house-elf."

Harry winced. "This... Dobby, it's not the greatest time to have a house-elf in my bedroom. Er, why are you here?"

"Dobby has come to warn the great Harry Potter of many things. But Dobby remembers you has vanquished He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named! You is the Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter sir."

Harry looked uncomfortable. "Well, yeah. But I'm just another Hogwarts student. Hermione's the smart one in my year, you know."

Dobby was overjoyed that Harry Potter was just as he remembered. "So humble Harry Potter is! He does not boast of his triumphs! But Dobby has heard, sir, that you has defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named _again_. Just weeks ago."

"How did you hear about Voldemort?"

Dobby winced. Even now, in a second lifetime, it was hard to hear the Evil One's name. "House-elves is speaking to each other, sir. House-elves is whispering of the most valiant and bold Harry Potter.

"But Dobby wishes to warn Harry Potter sir about dangerous things. There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year."

"What terrible things?" said Harry at once. "Who's plotting them?"

Dobby steeled himself. He tried to say the words, and found that he wasn't suddenly forced to punish himself. "Dobby's family, sir. Dobby's Master wishes to hurt Harry Potter's Wheezy!"

"Wheezy?" Harry looked puzzled. Then his expression cleared. "Oh! Ron! Ron Weasley? But why?"

"Dobby has heard the Master say many times that he does not like the Wheezys because they is liking Muggles, sir. He has also heard Little Master say nasty things about Harry Potter's Grangey. He uses the word 'Mudblood' and Master does not discourage it."

Shocked realisation dawned on Harry's face. "Your family's the Malfoys!"

Dobby nodded shamefully as his ears drooped. "Dobby is sorry, Harry Potter sir. But house-elves is bound to their family, and Dobby will have to shut his ears in the oven many times. He may even have to shut his hands and feet too! And he may have to smash his head against the bed-post!"

Dobby knew he would have to do some of that - but not because he was disobeying the Malfoys. He was having to... to _lie _to the great and valiant Harry Potter.

Harry's eyes widened. "That's terrible! But won't they notice if you shut your ears in the oven door and all the rest?"

Dobby shook his head. "No, sir, Dobby doubts it. They lets Dobby punish himself whenever they orders Dobby to do it. They is always punishing Dobby, even reminding Dobby to do extra punishments..."

Dobby hoped that Harry would feel sorry enough to help 'free' him again.

"Well, can't anyone help you? Can't I help? The Malfoys make the Dursleys seem almost human!"

"Dobby is _bound_ to his family. Dobby must serve them until he dies. Unless they give him _clothes_. And they does not give Dobby even a sock; Dobby cannot clean his family's clothes and become free that way. They must be giving Dobby clothes without telling him that they is still binding him."

Harry breathed heavily through his nose. "Well, if I possibly can I'll try to help. Really, I will."

Dobby hopped on the bed. "Dobby has heard of your greatness! But your goodness, Dobby did not know. Dobby is happy to hear this of the Noble Harry Potter."

Dobby's ears drooped again. He remembered he had been stopping Harry's mail, and would have to admit to it. He had been a little barmy in his old life, even by house-elf standards.

"But Dobby must admit that Dobby had thought if Harry Potter's friends did not care about him, that he would not wish to go to Hogwarts."

Astounded, Harry blurted, "That's rubbish! Hogwarts term starts on September the first. It's all that's keeping me going. You don't know what it's like here. I don't _belong_ here. I belong in your world – at Hogwarts."

Dobby snapped his fingers, making Harry's mail appear beside him on the bed. "Dobby apologises, Harry Potter. Dobby wishes to let Harry Potter know that Dobby is not a normal house-elf."

Harry, gathering up his mail, peered at Dobby. "What?"

Dobby tried to imagine how to explain something even magical people would think was bizarre. "Dobby is not sure. It is difficult, sir … Dobby wonders where to begin …"

Harry, finishing sorting his mail, sat down next to Dobby and said, "Well, look. Er, have a seat."

Dobby gratefully sat down. He said, "House-elves is not allowed to say _anything_ against their families. But Dobby can, because he is trying to be bound to Harry Potter, who would be so kind and gentle to house-elves everywhere."

"But wouldn't all house-elves want to do the same thing, then?"

Dobby shook his head. "Most house-elves is terrified of thinking bad things about their families. Even the nasty families that is making their house-elves shut their hands in the oven doors. But Dobby is sure that one day he can be free, and that Harry Potter will help."

"So... all right. You're a special kind of house-elf for some reason. Does this mean you could help me send messages to Ron and Hermione?"

Dobby nodded swiftly. "Yes, Harry Potter sir! Master is so busy thinking of punishments for Dobby that he will not notice that Dobby is gone for a few minutes. If you has messages for them Dobby will take the messages at once."

"Let me write the letters first. You can see Hedwig's locked up so I can't send any post even if I wanted to. Come back some time later, okay?"

Dobby's ears pricked up. "Dobby would be happy to!"

Dobby popped away, overjoyed that he had met the Great Harry Potter and that he was a free elf; even as he shut his ear in the oven door for having to lie to the wonderful Harry Potter, he grinned, knowing he would never have to obey Master again if he didn't want to.

* * *

Author Notes: Unbetaed. I hope you're as amused by this idea as I am. XD Part of my reluctance to take up my older fics is because ff.n broke all the section breaks and I need to go back through and fix them. Ugh.

Note that some material has been taken verbatim and/or adapted from _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 2

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Little Master was throwing a tantrum. Dobby was horrified at the state of Little Master's room.

"Little Master Draco! Dobby is cleaning your room at once!"

Dobby rapidly began picking up the books, parchment and other school supplies that had been thrown around while Little Master ranted at Master.

"Why _shouldn't_ I get a Nimbus 2001, father? Saint Harry Potter got a Nimbus 2000 from old McGonagall for _Quidditch_! And I want to be on the _team_, father. Can't you see to that?"

Master looked like he was very tired. Perhaps Dobby could be really free even faster! He could make Master _very_ mad. Or Little Master, for that matter.

Dobby purposely began cleaning near Draco's feet. "Little Master Draco's shoes is terrible! Dobby will shine Little Master Draco's shoes at once!"

He purposely made as much noise as he could whilst Master Draco argued with Master Lucius, saying most horrible and nasty things about Harry Potter, and Harry's Grangey and Wheezy.

Draco, fed up with being told by Dobby that he was moving his feet, kicked Dobby and yelled, "Shut up, you useless little troll! I'm trying to have a discussion with father and all you can do is whine about my shoes!"

Draco's face was an alarming shade of red, and Master Lucius was wearily saying. "If the broom means that much-"

Dobby remembered that Master Draco had a short temper, and he said, "But Little Master, Dobby only wishes-"

"And that's another thing! I'm twelve now, and I demand to be called Master, not Little! G_o away!"_

Draco kicked Dobby hard, and while Dobby's behind hurt terribly he knew he had his excuse to pop away and see Harry Potter again.

/\/\/\/\

True to his word, Harry had letters for Harry Potter's Wheezy and Grangey. He said, "I wrote them both a little about you. I hope you don't mind."

Dobby shook his head, his ears flapping. "Dobby does not mind at all! Dobby will be happy to meet Harry Potter's Wheezy and Grangey."

Harry frowned. "Say, why do you call them 'my' Weasley and Granger, anyway? Am I really that important to house-elves? Or just to you?"

"The days before you was born was dark days, indeed." Dobby shivered. "Dobby has lived long enough to remember when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was sending his Death Eaters to do many horrible things. House-elves was most horribly treated in those days because their Masters was Death Eaters and their Masters did not care if house-elves would hurt or be dead. But after you vanquished He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, things was a little bit better, because the nasty Death Eaters is in Azkaban Prison now."

"Death Eaters? Azkaban? What are those?" Harry looked curious.

"Death Eaters was the followers of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Dobby is most grievously breaking a confidence to tell you that his Master was most certainly a Death Eater. Dobby was cleaning Master's room from top to bottom and found Master's old mask and robe. Master made Dobby take a bath in scalding hot water for that!"

Harry Potter swallowed. He breathed, "Malfoy's dad followed _Voldemort_?" He whistled. "Dodged a bullet, then, didn't I, when I wouldn't be friends with him. How'd his dad not get thrown in jail?"

Dobby stood earnestly on the floor as he continued speaking. "Azkaban prison is a most terrible place, Harry Potter sir. There is Dementors which is the foulest of creatures. They can suck your very soul out! And when they is not doing the Dementor's Kiss they is feeding on all happy memories."

"How do you know all this?"

Dobby looked around shiftily. He said, "Dobby was with Mistress when she visited Bellatrix Lestrange. Dobby learned all about Dementors that day. But Master also knew all this and did not wish to be there. So he was telling the Aurors he is being under the Imperius Curse. Dobby knows, of course, that Master was not under the Imperius Curse. But wizards does not bother with house-elves, sir."

Harry's eyes were wide. "What a place! The wizarding world really seems to be all wonky. Hermione says wizards don't know much about logic and I can see why she says that. Wouldn't they be able to check Malfoy's dad for the curse, whatever that is?"

"Not if Master has been giving lots of money to be sure that they is only _pretending_ to detect the curse, because the Imperius Curse is most powerful magic."

Harry shook his head. "Well, as long as Malfoy and his dad stay away from me, I'll be happy. I'm not going up against _them_ if I can help it."

Dobby's ears drooped. "But sir, you is a most powerful wizard! You is able to defeat the terrible He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named! Dobby _believes_ in you, Harry Potter! Dobby believes you is able to save him! And if you is able to save but a house-elf, you is surely able to save others!"

"Dobby, you sound like… I dunno, like you know more than you can tell me. Is Malfoy's dad that dangerous to me?"

"Dobby does not think so, yet. But Dobby's Master is smart. He is surely finding ways to get what he wishes. Dobby is taking great risks to speak as much of his family as he does, and he will have to slam his ears in the doors later for this."

Harry sighed. He said, "And what's that 'Mudblood' word you said earlier?"

Dobby shuddered. "It is a most indecent word, sir. People does not say it unless they is hating Muggleborns. Dobby only says it because he had to repeat what Little Master said."

"Good to know. At least know I'll know what Malfoy means if he ever calls Hermione that. You say he says it a lot?"

Dobby nodded. "Dobby is hearing just today about Little Master complaining that his grades was not as good as Miss Grangey."

Harry laughed. "Good to know she's getting under Malfoy's skin. Anyway, you should probably deliver these letters before Malfoy's dad notices you're gone."

"It shall be done!"

Dobby immediately popped to the Weasley Burrow, where he secreted the letters in a corner of Arthur Weasley's garage under mounds of obsolete Muggle equipment Dobby could not begin to understand the usage of.

Afterwards, he returned to Malfoy Manor, where he promptly shut his hands in the oven door for having to lie again to the great Harry Potter.

/\/\/\/\

After the Malfoy family finished their dinner and had assigned the house-elves their cleaning tasks, Dobby swiftly cleared the kitchen and gave all the pots, pans, plates and utensils to Blinky for cleaning. He carefully made sure no other house-elf saw him as he popped back to deliver the mail to Harry Potter's Wheezy and Grangey.

Ron's first words were a bellow. _"Bloody hell! Mum! There's a house-elf in my room!"_

Dobby thought that this was a most annoying complication. Surely Harry Potter's Wheezy did not need to announce his presence!

The large Mrs Wheezy entered the room and stopped in shock as she saw Dobby.

"And whose elf might you be? We're certainly not well-off enough for _that!_" She bellowed, "Arthur! So help me, if someone tried to bribe you with a house-elf…!"

Mr Wheezy entered the room, surprised. "Molly, what on Earth...?"

Dobby was quite uncomfortable with the attention he was getting. He said, "Harry Potter sir has asked Dobby the house-elf to deliver a letter to his friend the Wheezy."

Arthur stepped forward cautiously. "Dobby, please put Ron's letter on the floor."

After Dobby did so, he saw Mr Wheezy cast numerous spells to detect curses, jinxes, or hexes. After seeing nothing happen, Mr Wheezy cautiously smiled at Ron and said, "Well, you can open your letter now, son."

Ron's grin melted off his face as he kept reading. "Mum, did you know Harry can't send any mail because his relatives have gone and locked his owl up?"

Mrs Wheezy said, "Well, that does seem odd, but they're Muggles, Ron. You can't expect them to understand owls."

Ron sighed. "Maybe. But Harry hasn't had a good word to say about them at all…." He kept reading and laughed. "Mum, Dad… you're not going to believe this. Dobby's from the Malfoys, he says!"

Abruptly, Mr Wheezy pointed his wand at Dobby and barked, "Stay where you are!"

Dobby's ears drooped. "But Mr Wheezy! Dobby would never harm Harry Potter sir or his friends! Dobby wishes so desperately to leave his family! They makes him iron his ears, and pour scalding hot water over himself, and slam his head against the wall."

"That's… very unusual behaviour for a house-elf, Dobby. Most house-elves I've heard of can't bear to speak ill of their families at all. Molly could tell you the same."

"Dobby realises he is not a normal house-elf. But Dobby believes it is because he wishes to help the Great and Noble Harry Potter that he can do as much as he can."

Mrs Wheezy pursed her lips. "Well, I've certainly never heard of a family's house-elf going to the trouble of helping a person who isn't even in their family – in fact, actively _opposes_ their family! That young Draco boy isn't Harry's friend at all, is he, Ron?"

Ron fervently shook his head. "No way! Harry'd sooner call the Giant Squid a friend."

"Dobby would swear an oath, even if it meant he would die, Mr Wheezy sir!"

Ron blurted, "Don't make him do it, please, Dad? Mum? I really think he's just barmy and doesn't quite have it all in his head or something. He seems harmless."

Dobby was frantic. "But Dobby would—"

Mr Wheezy said, "Hush. We're not going to do anything to put you in jeopardy. But you _are _Lucius's house-elf and you know where this place is. I'm going to have to ask that next time you come, you announce yourself at the front door and not try to enter unless given permission."

"Dobby will do as you say! Is Harry Potter's Wheezy writing a letter to Harry Potter's Grangey?"

Ron brightened. "Oh! You've got Harry's letter for Hermione, have you? I'll dash something off quick. Just wait, okay?"

Mrs Wheezy said, "You do as Ron says, Dobby. Wait right here in this room and don't leave until he tells you to. I'm making that a Burrow House Rule for the night."

At Ron's confused look, she said, "House-elves have to obey the rules of the household they're in if the rules don't contradict their Master's rules."

Ron shrugged and got to writing a letter. The older Wheezys left the room, and Dobby waited excitedly, knowing he had managed to avoid serious trouble.

* * *

Author Notes: And here we are. Hermione's next! :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 3

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby knew that Miss Grangey was a Muggleborn and that Muggles would not know what a house-elf was. So he kept well out of sight, popping into existence under the shadow of a low hedge that surrounded the house of Miss Grangey's parents.

House-elf magic was not well understood by wizards, and house-elves themselves, with their habitually poor command of English, couldn't explain it in any detail to a wizard. But that mattered little to Dobby as he instinctively searched the house with his magic and found Miss Grangey's room. He had been told by Ron Wheezy that "Maybe it'd be better if you just put the letters in her house first."

Dobby made sure that nobody was around, and snapped his fingers. The letters with him winked out of existence. Dobby waited patiently, knowing that his Masters and Mistress was all asleep, even though the sun had not quite set.

House-elf magic was normally invisible to wizards in any case, but magic done nearby could accidentally trigger the Trace, or as he had done in his old life, magic done nearby could do so on purpose. So he made sure to be extra careful, since he did not want Ministry Aurors descending upon him.

Dobby's patience was rewarded when a cautious head poked out the front door. Miss Grangey called, "Dobby?"

Dobby instantly popped in front of her and bowed. "Dobby is pleased to meet Harry Potter's friend Miss Grangey! Is Miss Grangey needing to send a letter?"

She looked quite taken aback, and said, "Er.. yes. I'm Hermione Granger. You'd better come up to my room. Can you do it quietly?"

Dobby nodded, popping immediately to her room. He wished he could wipe his feet, so noble was Miss Grangey's cause to free all house-elves; he would have to do with slamming his head on the bedpost at home later.

Rapid footsteps heralded her arrival into her room, breathless and surprised. "You startled me! Thank goodness nobody heard me yell out loud in fright." She took a moment, sat on her bed, and said, "Okay. You're Dobby the house-elf. You met Harry earlier this week. You just delivered post to Ron an hour ago. You're with … the Malfoys?" She frowned. "Ron explained how house-elves have to serve their families forever unless they get freed or they die, which is just _terrible!_ How can you stand it? And he said you were a strange one because you could actually say things – even bad things – about your family."

Dobby's best subject was Harry Potter, and he was only too keen to praise his virtues once again. "Dobby has heard of the greatness of Harry Potter and his friends! Dobby wishes to serve the great Harry Potter and believes this is why he is able to say things about Master Lucius and not be made to slam his head on the floor, Miss Grangey. Dobby needs only to be free by getting even a sock from Master. But they is too careful for that."

Dobby remembered a very sore point with the Hogwarts elves and spoke very earnestly. "But Dobby would like to tell Miss Grangey that the house-elves at Hogwarts is very happy to serve Hogwarts because the Headmaster is always kind and asks for sherbet lemons and other sweet desserts even late at night. Dobby asks that Miss Grangey please not try to free the house-elves at Hogwarts."

She put up her hand. "Wait. There are more like you at _Hogwarts?_ That's slave labour! Don't you get holidays, or pay, or… well, anything?"

Dobby clasped his hands anxiously. "Dobby would like to remind Miss Grangey that house-elves is knowing how to get food for themselves because they is making the meals for their families. And house-elves is not needing money or holidays because house-elves is not used to that sort of thing."

"But that's _wrong!_ Don't you see? I'm writing Headmaster Dumbledore at once about this."

Dobby would never have dared do this in his old life, but in his new one, with his mission to help the great Harry Potter, he knew he must not let the equally great Headmaster of Hogwarts know that a simple, humble house-elf had _travelled through time_. It would be inconceivable! And a house-elf that acted very strangely would most certainly get the Headmaster's attention.

So he bodily attached himself to Miss Grangey's leg and refused to let go. "Dobby will not let Miss Grangey go unless she promises to talk to the house-elves at Hogwarts first! If they is free, where is they going? And not many Masters is better than the Headmaster at Hogwarts! Dobby could tell Miss Grangey stories about the poor house-elves who is serving the Rosiers, the Averys, the Lestranges and that is not even beginning the list."

After she couldn't shake Dobby off, Miss Grangey reluctantly agreed to do as Dobby suggested. He immediately let go and said, "Dobby is happy! And Dobby wishes to suggest that Miss Grangey can give him letters to take back to Harry Potter and Ron Wheezy."

She nodded and said, "If you'll wait a few minutes I'll write up some letters. This is really so fascinating, actually, because I'm still learning about the magical world and Heaven knows books just don't seem to be enough. They never are. I had a second-year Slytherin look at me like I was made out of dirt or something because I didn't quite know the name of some Charms book when I was asking Madam Pince."

Dobby nodded. "House-elves is usually owned by pureblood wizarding families, and we is hearing some of our families say bad things about Muggleborns, indeed. Gibby was telling Dobby how her Little Mistress Parkinson was complaining about Miss Grangey and using a most awful word!"

Hermione scowled. "And what, pray tell, is this _word_?"

Dobby's ears drooped. "Dobby wishes not to say it because Dobby's Little Master Draco uses the word far too much and he says the most horrible things about Harry Potter and his friends. But Dobby will tell you that it is 'Mudblood'. If Miss Grangey wishes it, Dobby will punish himself for using that word."

Hermione blurted, "No! Don't!" When Dobby made no move, she relaxed and said, "Well, it certainly _sounds_ nasty, and if Draco Malfoy uses it a lot that's enough to know I won't put up with it."

Dobby abruptly realised that because he was actually a free elf even though the Malfoys were not aware of this, he could give Miss Grangey all kinds of books! But he would make it a surprise for her. All he needed to do was become the library house-elf at the Manor.

Meanwhile, Hermione Granger had finished her letters, and gave them to Dobby. She said, "I'm going to London in another week or two. I hope Harry can make it; those relatives of his sound just _terrible!_"

Dobby nodded eagerly. "Dobby agrees, ma'am. But Harry Potter is safe for now."

She sighed. "I hope so. Go on, deliver the letters, okay?"

Dobby popped away, dropping the letter for Ron Wheezy at the doorstep of the Burrow, then popping back to Harry Potter's room to give him the letter. Dobby apologetically said, "Dobby has been away from Master's house for a few hours. Dobby must not be caught!"

Harry Potter nodded and said, "I know how that feels. See you later."

/\/\/\/\

Luckily, when Dobby popped back to Malfoy Manor, there was no trouble. Dobby spoke to Toppy, the library house-elf. Toppy never liked cleaning it because he was afraid of heights, so he was only too glad to switch duties with Dobby. Since Master Lucius only cared that the house-elves keep the Manor clean, the details of house-elf labour were beneath his notice.

Now, Dobby could read, though not perfectly, and he could sense bad magic. This made him the perfect spy for purloining Master's books. He was simply… storing them somewhere, not actually _stealing_ the books, of course.

So Dobby secreted away such books as _Potions for the Discerning Witch_ and _Dark Rituals, Hexes and Curses._ But he passed over _Soul Magic_ because the book was cursed to yell very loudly if it were removed from the shelf by anyone but Master, and so it went until he had found twenty or so books in the collection of hundreds. He had also made sure they were all from the very top shelves in case Master was keeping an eye on his books.

When Dobby returned to Harry Potter's house two days later, he found chaos. The round cousin of Harry Potter's was yelling, "_I've had enough_! Harry keeps mumbling his stupid m-m-ma-you-know-what, and I won't have it anymore!" He stamped his foot at that last word.

Dobby anxiously hid himself outside the sitting room, and watched wide-eyed as the large man pointed a beefy finger at Harry Potter and said, "So you thought you could scare Dudders, hmm? Well, we'll just see if you can really do… do _that!_"

Dobby was terrified! Harry Potter would be hurt by the large man, who was already scrambling after Harry. He snapped his fingers, causing the man to trip and stumble. Harry Potter was already in his bedroom, and Dobby moved swiftly. He popped into Harry's room, seeing Harry's red face as he breathed harshly from the effort of running.

"Dobby! You need to get out of here! Uncle Vernon's in a real mood today! Quickly!"

Dobby saw the solution at once and moved. He snapped his fingers once, sending all of Harry's possessions to outside the Burrow, then grabbed Harry's hand, saying, "Dobby will take you from here at once!"

Harry, protesting, tried to shake Dobby off, only to be startled when the door slammed open.

Vernon Dursley looked at Dobby, then bellowed, "_What is the meaning of this freakishness?!_ Owls are bad enough, but when ugly gnomes are showing up any old time they feel like it—! Well, you can just rot in here for the rest of your life!"

The bedroom door slammed, and Dobby distinctly heard a _click_ that was the door being locked.

Harry scowled and said, "Now look what you've done! I can't leave _now_ even if I wanted to!"

Dobby, crestfallen, said, "But Dobby _can_ help you leave, Harry Potter sir. Please hold Dobby's hand and Dobby shall take you and the owl to the Wheezys!"

"But _how_? I mean, I've seen you pop in and out, but you can do that with people, too? Why don't we all travel that way?"

"Dobby thinks it is because house-elf magic does not set off the Trace and because wizards is not thinking much of house-elves."

Harry frowned. "The Trace? Is that what keeps me from doing magic outside of school?"

Dobby nodded. "Yes, Harry Potter sir. But at magical places the Trace is set off so much the Ministry is ignoring it because they is not able to tell if the big wizards or witches is doing the magic or the young ones."

"So I could do magic at Ron's place!" Harry grinned. "Wait 'till I tell Ron. He was complaining his parents don't let anyone do magic at home except them."

Dobby said, "We is going now, Harry Potter sir."

Harry took Dobby's hand, and Dobby grabbed the owl cage with his other hand. They vanished to the Burrow, where Dobby knew Harry would meet his other Wheezy very soon.

* * *

Author Note: Since Dobby didn't purposely activate the Trace I felt there needed to be another reason for Harry to finally have to escape the Dursleys and go to the Burrow. Seems to me with Harry scaring Dudley every so often Uncle Vernon would finally decide he'd had enough and magic or no magic, do something.


	4. Chapter 4

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 4

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby materialised with Harry outside the Burrow. Harry blinked, adjusting his eyes to the sudden change of surroundings. He looked around and said, "Oh, thank you, Dobby! I was worried you wouldn't bring my trunk or my broom. Say, you couldn't happen to be able to help me get Hedwig out of her cage, could you?"

Dobby looked at the cage and noticed the lock was fairly simple. He cast an unlocking spell, and the cage door flew open. The owl promptly hooted happily and took flight. Meanwhile, Harry knocked at the door, and remarked, "This place looks brilliant! I wonder how it's all held together. Well, magic, I guess."

Dobby was happy to see that Harry Potter looked happy as well. He was looking at the clear blue sky, the sprawling farmland, just taking in the open space which Dobby thought must be quite different from the small room at Harry Potter's house.

The door opened and Ron stepped out, only to blink twice and gasp, "_Harry?_ Bloody hell, what happened?"

"Ron! It's great to see you. Listen, there was trouble at the Dursleys. They locked me up because they got fed up with me pretending to magic Dudley all the time, and Dobby was at the wrong place at the wrong time and – well, it all went pear-shaped. But Dobby got me out of there right away."

Ron whistled. "I've never heard of a house-elf being able to move people around. You're one strange house-elf, you know that, Dobby? Makes me wonder how Malfoy and his dad can be so stupid as to miss it."

"Dobby thinks it is because Little Master has his nose in the air all the time and Master is too busy finding Dark things to sell in Knockturn Alley."

The boys laughed. Harry said, "That's Draco Malfoy all right! Stuck-up git. Anyway, Dobby, thanks for getting me out of there."

"Dobby is only too happy to help the great Harry Potter!" he expostulated. Then he remembered something, and timidly spoke. "But Dobby would ask a favour of Harry Potter's Wheezys. Dobby asks that the Wheezys must say they has Apparated to Harry Potter's house to take him away. Dobby is a humble _house-elf_, and does not wish people to know what he can do for the great Harry Potter."

Ron looked gobsmacked and said, "Okay, this is one for Mum. Stay there, Dobby. C'mon, Harry, let's get your stuff inside."

Soon, Mrs Wheezy was at the door, smiling at Dobby, She said, "Thank you for bringing Harry here. Ron speaks about him a lot, and I'm glad they're such good friends. But what's this about Apparating?"

"Dobby would like to remind Mrs Wheezy that he is a house-elf whose Master is not Harry Potter sir. Is you thinking that Dobby's Master would not punish Dobby for this if he is finding out what is happening?"

The woman pursed her lips and said, "All right; I see what you mean. I'm going over there straightaway and telling them I've taken Harry myself with magic. They won't know Harry's already gone with you. Maybe one day when you're free you can tell us all how you've managed to do this without having to punish yourself for even thinking about it.

"I'll ask Harry for his address and Apparate there. You should go back before you're punished for being missing."

Dobby nodded, and watched as Mrs Wheezy went inside for a few minutes then left with a _crack_ in the air. Dobby decided he would hide in the bushes at Harry Potter's place and watch what happened.

/\/\/\/\

Just as he materialised, hidden in the bushes at Number Four Privet Drive, he saw the red-haired woman knocking firmly at the door.

Another woman opened the door and spoke with ill grace. "And who might you be?"

"I'll have you know, Mrs—?"

The thin, horse-faced woman spat, "Dursley."

"Mrs Dursley, then. I've taken Harry Potter away this morning, myself. He'll stay with my family for the rest of summer."

Mrs Dursley hissed, "Good _riddance!_" She pointed and spoke sharply. "Spreading his freakishness to my Dudders by mumbling magic under his breath all the time. I'm only sorry I missed with the frying pan!"

"If that's truly the way you feel about your nephew, I can only say I'm very sorry to have met you and you can be sure Albus Dumbledore will be hearing about this!"

Oddly, the Dursley woman paled. "_Dumbledore?_ He gave his word we'd never be bothered by anyone _freakish _like you! If you like him so much, have him take that Potter brat away from us forever. It wouldn't be too soon for me, that's for sure. Now go away!"

The door slammed, and Mrs Wheezy turned around, looking a little stunned. Dobby could sympathise. How could his relatives be so unable to see the greatness and the kindness of Harry Potter, who showed more concern for Dobby than any Malfoy ever did?

Dobby popped away to resume cleaning and dusting the library, for Master had decided his books were not quite clean enough and had ordered that Dobby drink something called castor oil. Of course, Dobby would not have to drink it for that reason, but he had lied and asked wizards and witches to help him lie and that was a _bad_ thing for a house-elf to do. So he would punish himself.

Even after he sicked up for the third time an hour later, Dobby was not upset with his having to punish himself for having to _lie_, since it meant the great Harry Potter would be able to save the world more quickly this time.

/\/\/\/\

A few days later, Dobby met Harry again when Master was away with Mistress, and Little Master was at the Zabinis. Harry was happy and said, "Dobby! Listen, Hermione came up with a _brilliant _plan. I think Malfoy's dad deserves it, considering what happened in Diagon Alley. He was really _rude _to Mr Weasley, and Draco wasn't much better.

"Anyway. we send Malfoy's dad something really fancy by owl. And we'll put in one of Uncle Vernon's old socks. He'll throw the sock away, and because it's not his, throwing you the sock means you've been given clothes and you're free! How about it?"

Dobby was ecstatic. He was already a free elf, of course, but this would mean he could _say_ he was a free elf to anyone! Dobby said, "Dobby suggests something made with leather. Dobby believes Master Lucius wanted a carrying case for books that would not break, since he dropped and broke his expensive wooden book protector. Master Lucius made Toppy clean it up and then stand on the oven."

Ron said, "Wait. Who's it going to be from? If someone sent me something out of the blue I'd be suspicious, you know?"

Harry said, "What about one of Malfoy's dad's friends? Someone he doesn't talk to a lot."

"Dobby thinks he knows the perfect person. Headmaster Karkaroff from Durmstrang was knowing Master Lucius years ago. They sends letters to each other but not very much. Dobby is knowing that Master Lucius complained to Headmaster Karkaroff about his book protector box."

Harry snapped his fingers. "Okay, we'll say it's from Karkaroff on the parcel. But isn't there a magical way to forge the writing? I mean, there's got to be a spell or something for it."

Ron groaned. "I've got to get the twins. They're going to be too nosy by half about this, though."

Sure enough, Fred and George were peering at Dobby intensely. "So, Mr House-Elf named Dobby, you want to get free of the Malfoys—"

"—and you think sending something to Malfoy's dad with a sock in it will work?"

The twins whistled simultaneously. One twin said to the other, "Fred, we could probably get Lee Jordan to get us one of those Muggle boxes that looks really fancy. Or maybe a good Transfiguration would do it."

"Well, how long's it got to last, George? Just long enough to get there and fool Malfoy's dad, right? But we can't do the bloody Transfiguration thanks to that bloody rule."

'Dobby is reminding all of you that you is able to do magic here. The Trace is not able to tell if it is you or your Mum Wheezy."

Ron's jaw dropped. "Are you serious?"

"Dobby points out that Little Master does practice spells all the time even when Master Lucius is not at home."

Ron smacked his forehead. "Of course! If you're in a magical house… well, that'd explain it. But Mum's always so down on us doing magic and won't say why. I sure don't want to get yelled at for it."

Fred said, "Hmm. Well, if what Dobby says is right, it could be because Dad doesn't want to get in trouble with the Ministry. His job's not exactly a good one and he's confiscated cursed Muggle artefacts off some of our classmates' parents before. So we know how they feel about him and they'd like it if he lost his job. Plus there's that Muggle Protection law Dad wants to get through the Wizengamot."

Dobby said, "Dobby would like to help, but Dobby has already been away too long and must be back at Master's house. Dobby will be back tomorrow."

/\/\/\/\

As it happened, the next day everything came together. Fred and George trooped into Ron's room bearing an expensive-looking leather case the right size for a book. George presented a crisp letter written on parchment, and read out loud,

"_Dear Lucius Malfoy,_

_Please accept my gift of this carrying case for your books to replace the one you lost. My best wishes for you, your wife and your son._

_Sincerely,_

_Igor Karkaroff, Headmaster, Durmstrang."_

Harry laughed. "_Igor?_ Are you serious?"

"Serious as can be, ickle Harrykins. We even asked Percy the Prefect, who stuffily informed us that we should know about other schools in case we get kicked out of Hogwarts."

Fred said, "Rubbish, of course. We'll stay at Hogwarts until we're good and ready to leave. Now, Harry, the sock."

Harry produced a ratty old grey sock and put it on top of the leather case. Fred put the letter on top of the entire package and put it on the floor, then cast a spell. "This is a tricky one Lee told us about. It's supposed to wipe magical signatures off things. Obviously you're not allowed to use it on your homework or they'll say you've cheated."

George said, "As if we'd do such a thing."

Ron snorted. "I bet McGonagall caught you at it in first year, didn't she?"

"We neither confirm nor deny such a statement, ickle Ronnikins."

After a spell to wrap the parcel up in conjured paper, addressing it to Lucius Malfoy and another magical-signature wipe later, Dobby was presented with the package. "Okay. Here's what you do. Take it to the Hogsmeade Post Office and tell them it's for the Malfoys. Oh, bugger. It's five sickles or something, isn't it?"

Harry said, "Wait! My trunk. Hold on!"

After rummaging through it Harry said, "Ah-ha. Here's a Galleon. That should be more than enough, right?"

Dobby said, "Dobby believes so, Harry Potter sir. Dobby cannot wait to see the look on Master Lucius's face!"

Dobby took the Galleon and the parcel and popped away.

The Hogsmeade Post Office worker saw just another overworked house-elf running errands on behalf of its master, and barely grunted as he saw who the recipient was. He handed back the change, which Dobby magicked back to the doorstep outside the Burrow after he returned to Malfoy Manor.

At dinnertime, the Malfoy family was eating outside in an open-air gazebo. The owl, which Dobby recognised, swooped through the wards and dropped the package on the table, then flew away.

Master Lucius appeared annoyed, and ripped open the package. He looked at the letter, smiled, then noticed the sock. He tossed it aside in disgust, and Dobby, unseen, snatched it out of the air. He felt the last tenuous bonds with the Malfoys disappear completely, and nearly jumped for joy.

But Lucius's thunderous bellow brought Dobby back to reality. "What is the meaning of this _prank!_"

Dobby decided to make sure Lucius's temper got worse. Dobby popped onto the table and yelled, "Dobby has been given a _sock_! Dobby is _FREE!_"

He looked and saw that the expensive leather book had lost its Transfiguration, returning to the pile of tree leaves it had been changed from. Lucius's face turned a brilliant shade of red and he bellowed, "Elf! Leave at once!"

Lucius pointed his wand at the parcel and yelled, "INCENDIO!"

The leaves, false letter and paper went up in flames and quickly became ashes. Dobby snapped his fingers, Vanishing everything in case Lucius should try to use the Reconstitution Charm later. He then popped to his elf quarters, retrieved the books he intended to give to Miss Grangey, then retrieved one more book, and left Malfoy Manor forever.

* * *

Author Note: Credit goes to **Slytherin66** for the idea of Dobby getting freed by the sock-mail method. :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 5

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby quickly left the purloined books (except for one) with Miss Hermione by sending them into her bedroom, and returned to the Wheezys, triumphant. He knocked on the door as loudly as he could, to be greeted with an enthusiastic Harry Potter. "Dobby? You did it? For real?"

Dobby nodded, too thrilled to speak. He held up the sock, provoking a cheer from Harry, and responding cheers in the house. Ron came up and said, "Hullo, Dobby! Come on in, will you?"

Dobby entered the Burrow and was finally calm enough to say, "Dobby has two requests of Harry Potter."

Harry sat on a couch in the sitting room, followed by Ron, Fred, George, and a new individual: Ginny. He patted the space next to him and said, "Why don't you sit here, Dobby?"

Dobby sat, too overcome by being treated as an equal to object.

Harry said, "Okay, you had two requests. So what are they?"

Dobby hesitantly said, "Dobby would first like to ask if he could keep this sock."

"Oh! Sure! Go ahead." Harry seemed surprised, but it was not in Dobby's purview to question the emotions of the person he wished to serve.

"And Dobby would like to ask if he could become Harry Potter's house-elf." He looked at Harry with wide eyes, hoping that his fondest wish would be granted properly in his new life.

"Well… okay. But I think of you as a friend, you know. Not somebody I can just order around whenever I want. I got treated like that by the Dursleys and nobody should have to get that from anyone. It's bad enough I do.

"Do you need to be my house-elf for, you know, magic reasons?"

Dobby nodded earnestly. "Dobby's magic will be stronger if he is bound to Harry Potter, and Dobby will protect Harry Potter as much as he can if Harry Potter wishes it!"

Harry looked around at his friends, and they were nodding in agreement. He responded, "All right. Tell me how to do it and you can work for me. But as a friend. And you need to tell me if you think you're working too hard for me. Okay?"

"Dobby will do this! You is holding out your hand, Harry Potter."

Dobby took Harry's hand, concentrating on joining his magic – at long last, after all these years! – with the Great, Wonderful, Valiant and Noble Harry Potter. As the tendrils joined, Dobby noticed with some fear that there was another kind of magic lurking in Harry Potter, a magic that was not responding to his house-elf magic but a magic that still should not be there. It was threatening, but not dangerous. Dobby decided to act the moment that magic became a danger to his new master.

A flash of light over their hands showed the joining was finished. Dobby now knew exactly how to find Harry Potter anywhere in the world if he had to, and would serve Harry Potter with devotion until he died. He let two fat tears trail down from his eyes as he let the feelings of victory overwhelm him.

"Dobby is so thankful to Harry Potter sir! Is there anything Harry Potter wishes?"

Harry said, "Whoa! Dobby! Calm down. Here, you need a handkerchief. Someone, can you get him one, please?"

Dobby took the material and wiped his eyes and nose, nodding in grateful thanks.

Harry took Dobby gently by the shoulders and said, "Now, Dobby. Can you _please _just call me Harry?"

"Dobby will try to remember to call you that."

Harry smiled. "Thanks. Anyway, I don't know if you met Ginny yet."

Ginny waved hesitantly at Dobby, who equally hesitantly waved back.

Seeing Ginny reminded Dobby that he had found out the cursed diary had been somehow transferred to the Wheezys by his old Master, and he tried to sense it with his magic. He wasn't completely sure, but he believed it _was_ in the Burrow.

Dobby remembered the book he had taken for Harry. "Harry Potter! Dobby wishes to give you this book from Malfoy Manor."

Ron laughed. "Let me guess, you nicked Malfoy's Potions study book or something."

Dobby nodded. "Dobby has heard, Harry, of your troubles with Professor Snapey of Hogwarts and has found this book on Potions that Draco Malfoy uses."

He handed it over, and Harry grinned. He read aloud, "A Guide for Apprentices in Potions". He opened the first page and read, "This book is for the student who wishes to excel in Potions by understanding the theory behind ingredient interactions, as well as standard Potions techniques and their rationales. Students in their first or second years at Hogwarts are not expected to understand the advanced material more fully, but are directed to read over chapters one and two. The remainder of the book may be consulted as required and understood in its entirety by one's fifth year at Hogwarts. It will continue to serve well as a reference guide, particularly for young adults beginning their apprenticeships to become Potions Masters."

Harry snapped the book shut and said, "Who wants to bet Snape gives this to all the Slytherins? Hermione didn't even know about this book or she'd have nagged you and me to get it, Ron."

Ron muttered, "Blimey!"

Fred said, "That'd be a right handy book to have. No chance we can get it copied. It'll have anti-copying spells, I bet."

Harry tapped the book. "But we can see this with our eyes. I wonder if a Muggle photocopier would work. We've got to get this to Hermione!"

Dobby piped up, saying, "Dobby will take this book at once! Is you writing a letter for her as well?"

One letter and some scrounged Sickles later, Dobby popped into Hermione Granger's bedroom.

She was laying on her bed, reading. The pop had startled her a bit, but when she saw it was Dobby, she relaxed. "Hello, Dobby. I don't suppose you were the one who dumped a load of books in the corner of my room, were you?"

Dobby nodded. "Dobby is now Harry Potter's house-elf! Dobby removed those books from his old Master's house because he knew that Miss Hermione would want to read them."

Hermione gasped. "They're _stolen?_ Dobby, I can't keep these! Especially not from someone like Draco Malfoy's father, if what Harry and Ron have been saying is any indication in their letters!"

"Dobby thought these books would be _helping_ you, miss. Dobby is sorry they is not." His ears drooped.

"No, they are! It's just… you can't go around _stealing_ things, Dobby. Not even if the person you're stealing from is a very bad person." Hermione huffed. "Well, I suppose it's too late to try and get you to return these without making a bigger mess than just keeping them. Why did you come here, by the way?"

Dobby handed over the Potions study book, the money and Harry's letter. She rapidly digested the first few pages, then abruptly slammed it down on her bed. "Of all the low-down dishonourable manoeuvers—! Was this specially given to Draco for his Potions classes?"

"Dobby remembers Professor Snape telling Lucius to buy the book in Diagon Alley before Draco Malfoy was to go to Hogwarts, ma'am. But he was also saying it cost ten or fifteen Galleons."

Through gritted teeth, Hermione said, "Which probably means all the Slytherins with wealthy parents have this. That's it!" She grabbed up the book and barked, "I'm going to make Dad take me where I can get a dozen photocopies made. I'm giving some to the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs! Tell Harry he can keep the money.

"And I'm _not giving those books back!_"

Hermione stormed out of her room, leaving a surprised Dobby to pop back to the Burrow with the news.

Harry and his friends fell over laughing when Dobby repeated what Hermione said.

Ron said, "Now that's a first! Hermione not following a rule."

Ginny abruptly slipped away, and only Dobby noticed. However, without a clear danger to Ginny, Dobby couldn't leave Harry. But Dobby was patient. He had waited years of his life to be Harry Potter's house-elf, and now he was. He could wait for a week or two to prevent the danger to Harry Potter's Wheezy.

/\/\/\/\

Hermione had dispatched thick photocopies of the Potions book, enough for the fivesome that had formed in the last week.

Dobby had then suggested to Hermione that if she copied the other books, he could slowly put them back and make the Malfoys think they were getting careless with their books.

The gleam in her eyes was _most_ unsettling, and Dobby was happy she was Harry's friend and not his enemy.

So Dobby secretly popped back to Malfoy Manor, discovering to his delight that his old master had not bothered to reset the wards. Bad wizards always underestimated house-elves. He deposited the Potions study book under Draco's bed, and some of Lucius's books in the kitchen.

Dobby's opportunity to intercept the diary came on a weekend. The Weasley family had all sat down to breakfast (Dobby could still not convince Mrs Weasley to let him cook; at most he was permitted to clean the bedrooms and do the laundry), but Ginny was in the other room, still writing in her diary.

Dobby was sent to retrieve Ginny, and the moment he saw the diary, he yelled in his loudest voice, "Miss Wheezy! That is Dobby's old Master's diary! You is writing in it! Dobby's old Master told of wicked plans to hurt the Wheezy family when he did not think Dobby was listening!"

Dobby made a desperate grab for the diary, pulling it out of the shocked Ginny's hands. The rest of the family, overhearing the exchange, rushed in. Arthur said, "Dobby? Please put that book on the table. Ginny, stay away from it."

Dobby closed the diary, trembling as he remembered how it had helped open the Chamber of Secrets. After placing it on the table, he stepped away. Arthur, in his turn, cast numerous spells over the diary. At the end, he sighed. "I don't know what it is. It's some kind of cursed artefact, but I couldn't tell you what was in it. Ginny? Can you tell me anything?"

In a small voice, Ginny said, "I… I just know it somehow ended up in my books after we came back from Diagon Alley. It started writing back to me, and… well, it was nice to me and I loved having a diary that could talk to me."

He crouched next to the girl and said, "Ginny! Haven't I always said make sure you know where an artefact keeps its brain? There are things like this which can communicate to you, yes, but a detection spell will show you how it does so. This diary – I did the spell and it didn't reveal how the diary could communicate!" He turned to Mrs Weasley and said, "Molly, we've got to get Dumbledore. I really don't like this."

Mrs Weasley rushed to the floo and put a call through to Hogwarts. Meanwhile, Harry came close to the diary and looked at the back, where Arthur had left it. He muttered, "T. M. Riddle." He rubbed his forehead and stepped back. Dobby wondered why Harry Potter's scar should have anything to do with the diary, and wondered if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had done something to his new master.

Mrs Weasley announced, "Headmaster Dumbledore will be through in about fifteen minutes. Now let's finish up breakfast, and _Fred! George!_ You two had better be on your best behaviour or you'll be outside de-gnoming the garden!"

Everybody slowly trooped back to the dining table and half-heartedly finished up with breakfast. Even Dobby, who sat on a chair next to Harry, was a bit nervous and couldn't eat all of the one large slice of ham he had allowed himself as a luxury.

The _whoosh _of the floo broke the logjam as the old Headmaster stepped into the sitting room. The Weasleys, plus Harry and Dobby, formed a semicircle to greet him. Dumbledore eyed Harry and Dobby with some interest, then regarded Arthur. "Hello. While I am curious as to why Harry and a house-elf are here, I take it there is a more pressing issue at hand."

Arthur nodded firmly. "Yes, Headmaster. My daughter, Ginny, was writing in this book when the house-elf cried that his old master had planned to use it against me or my family."

The Headmaster again eyed Dobby keenly, but moved to cast his wand over the diary. His eyes caught the name on the back of the diary, and they widened a fraction of an inch. He abruptly said, "This is indeed a dangerous artefact. I am exceedingly grateful to you all for reporting this to me immediately. But I fear I must induge my curiosity. How comes this house-elf to be here, and how comes Harry, who I assumed to be with his relatives, to be here as well?"

Harry said, "Well, sir, this is Dobby. He's the Malfoy house-elf, and the first I knew of him was when he was frantically warning me a few weeks ago about a danger to me and to Hogwarts. He said he wanted very badly to serve me, which was why he said he could say things against his family and admit it was the Malfoys."

Dobby nodded. "Dobby's old Master Lucius was making plans to use the diary to hurt Harry Potter's friends and said it would help open the Chamber of Secrets. He spoke all this when he did not think Dobby was listening. However old Master Lucius has a wicked temper, and finally he gave Dobby clothes. Dobby is now Harry Potter's house-elf, as he has always wished to be."

The Headmaster said, "Your loyalty, Dobby, is commendable. And your behaviour, while unusual for a house-elf, is typical of the exceedingly strong loyalty you must have always shown Harry. I wish to make a point here of reminding you all that it is how we treat the least among us that shows important aspects of our character, and that house-elves, no matter how insignificant they may seem, may one day prove a formidable part of our magical world.

"But I still do not understand why Harry is here."

Harry replied, "Uncle Vernon finally decided he'd had enough of me pretending to magic Dudley when he was bothering me, and I ran to my room to get away from him. When he came upstairs. Dobby had come in already. After Uncle Vernon saw Dobby, he yelled some more and then locked me in my room. Dobby left to go get Mrs Weasley, who took me away from here."

Dumbledore's eyebrows lifted. "Is this so, Dobby?"

Dobby nodded swiftly. "The large round man yelled at Harry Potter about 'freakishness' and locked Harry Potter into his room. Dobby told this to Mrs Weasley, who Apparated Harry Potter away."

The Headmaster sighed. "It is vital, Harry, that you remain at your relatives, and your sudden departure is a serious matter. We may have to consider returning you for another week."

"_Absolutely not!_" bellowed Mrs Weasley. "I had a good talking-to with that… that—Mrs _Dursley_, and her only regret was that she'd missed hitting Harry dear with the frying pan! She said you'd promised to keep _freakishness_ away from them and that we could take away the 'Potter brat' any time we pleased!"

"Mrs Weasley, as much as I realise the behaviour of the Dursleys is deplorable in the extreme, there are reasons he needs to remain there for some time out of the year."

Mrs Weasley's voice was like ice. "_What_ reasons?" She extended her arm around Harry's shoulders.

"I am not at liberty to say," said Dumbledore with an air of finality.

She retorted, "Then _we _are not at liberty to give up Harry. He will stay here and then go to Hogwarts with Ginny, Ron and my other children. Which reminds me, their Hogwarts letters came here, and so did Harry's. If you knew he was here already, why did you wait until we contacted you to insist he go back to his relatives?"

"Because Deputy Headmistress McGonagall actually addresses them with the Hogwarts magical quill, and barring exceptional circumstances, she does not alert me to the whereabouts of Hogwarts students," said Dumbledore reasonably.

Mrs Weasley scoffed. "That's a pretty far cry from the interest you're taking in Harry now. Since when have you ever gone to a student's summer residence to insist he or she move somewhere else from a friend's place? I certainly don't remember you visiting Bill at his Aunt Muriel's place to tell him he needed to come back here!"

Dumbledore took off his eyeglasses and rubbed his face. He admitted, "Harry _is_ something of a special case. His status as the Boy Who Lived gives him some prominence in the wizarding world and I would be remiss if I did not ensure he was kept safe from kidnapping attempts and the like."

Harry blurted, "Even if it means I have to live with an aunt who threw a frying pan at me? If I hadn't got out of there in time…!"

"An isolated incident, Harry—"

"There's more. Did you know my Hogwarts letters came to the Cupboard Under The Stairs? I lived in a cupboard for ten years while my cousin got _two bedrooms _all to himself and Uncle Vernon wouldn't even let me have the guest room that Aunt Marge would use!"

Arthur looked at Harry with a shocked expression. "Harry, is this—Ron never told us anything like this in his letters home. Did this really happen?"

Harry turned his face away, hugging Mrs Weasley. His voice was muffled as he said, "How do you tell your best friends you lived in a _cupboard?_ Even I know that's not normal and I already get way too much attention as it is."

Dobby was horrified at this and decided that should his master have to go to that house he would be sure to protect Harry from anything, even the large round man!

Arthur said, "That settles it. We're not letting him go back this summer, and if you try to take him by force, I will have to petition the Minister for Magic and the Wizengamot for the appropriate guardianship papers. You have the rest of Harry's second year at school to modify his relatives' appalling behaviour, and if that's not done by then, we'll take him in, your personal reasons notwithstanding."

Headmaster Dumbledore seemed confused. He finally drew himself to his full height, pocketed the diary, and said, "Very well. I shall see you young ones at Hogwarts."

Dobby immediately embraced Harry's leg, wishing he could make Harry Potter happy.

* * *

Author Note: Sirius Black will come up sooner or later. Keep watching. :) (I was alerted to a small plot hole by stonegnome1; I've just patched that with a reference to the price. And Harry's not in a book splurging mood because he doesn't have a good idea of the value of money in the wizarding world and would rather make sure he has enough to last him for a while. That may change later. :D )


	6. Chapter 6

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 6

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

The days until school began settled into a comfortable pattern for Dobby, who happily cleaned the bedrooms, did the laundry, and even occasionally helped Arthur Weasley with tidying up his garage.

After that day of meeting the Headmaster, Harry seemed to be happy with his friends the Weasleys, which made Dobby all the more eager to do the cleaning and join Harry when he was invited to watch the children fly on their brooms. Ginny seemed to have decided not to take "no" for an answer after discovering her near miss with a cursed book, and bodily took Harry's Nimbus 2000 to show she could fly a broom as well as any boy.

Ron was particularly gobsmacked at _that_ event. He made up for it by being very competitive in trying to keep Ginny from tossing the apples past him at the family paddock.

Meanwhile, Dobby continued his clandestine missions of returning the books he had taken from Malfoy Manor. Hermione Granger's collection of paper-copied books grew to such an extent that Dobby urged the selection of an expandable multicompartment trunk, so that she could pack everything away and bring it all to Hogwarts.

When Dobby informed her that the cost of such a trunk was a hundred Galleons or more, she sat down heavily on the bed and wondered aloud where on Earth she could get five hundred pounds or thereabouts. Dobby was unable to help her and would have shut his fingers in the door had she not rushed to stop him.

In the meantime, Dobby suggested, "Dobby will come with Harry Potter to Hogwarts. He can bring you all your papers, ma'am."

Hermione nodded and began writing out a schedule. Dobby discreetly left with another book, this time to place on the floor of the library, as though it had simply fallen off the shelf. He had heard Toppy saying to Blinky, 'Master is wondering why the books is everywhere now. He is asking Mistress if she thinks he is losing his mind, and Mistress is laughing, saying Master is overworked from dealing with raids by the Ministry and that is why he keeps losing his books. They is going to take a long trip to France after Master Draco is leaving for Hogwarts.'

Dobby was ecstatic! This meant he could just replace the books right where they had come from and then concentrate on helping Harry. But he decided that Harry was very happy right now and that he could bring up anything on the train to Hogwarts.

It also gave him time to wonder how he, a simple house-elf, could cause Harry's Snuffles to be free. The only thing Dobby could think of was the way Harry said the name "Wormtail" with disgust. And Ron Weasley had a pet rat which Dobby knew was not Ron's pet when he had seen Harry with Sirius Black.

But what did a pet rat have to do with Sirius? Maybe if Dobby could get Harry's Professor Lupin to visit him, everything would be cleared up.

/\/\/\/\

Unlike in Dobby's past life, where he had secreted himself away at Platform 9 ¾ and had purposely kept Harry from entering, the day of the journey was remarkably simple and trouble-free. Dobby said he would wait until the train was being on the move before popping to Harry's cabin, as house-elves normally did not travel by train.

Thus, Dobby's only mission was to make sure the Weasleys and Harry made it to the platform without trouble and from there, met Hermione Granger. After Fred and George went off with Lee Jordan, Ginny took a blond girl with her, who Dobby knew to be Luna Lovegood, and met with some first-years in their own cabin.

So Dobby joined Harry, Ron and Hermione by themselves in their cabin as the train began to move. Dobby announced, "Dobby is locking the cabin door and frosting the window so people is not seeing us," even as he flicked his hand.

Harry, confused, said, "Why?"

"Because Dobby does not wish _everyone _to know Harry Potter has his own house-elf at Hogwarts. What if they is jealous and forces Dobby to leave? Dobby would be _miserable_ if he could not help serve the Great Harry Potter!"

Harry put his hand on Dobby's shoulder and said, "Hey, relax, okay? We're just in second-year, right? It's not like we have much to worry about."

Ron said, "Well, you know, something you said to Harry way back is coming back to me. Harry – you remember you wrote how Dobby mentioned the followers of You-Know-Who, right?"

"Yeah."

Hermione, her curiosity piqued, said, "I did some reading on the subject but it tended to get rather vague about the last stages of the war before Harry… well, repelled You-Know-Who."

Dobby said, "Dobby was telling Harry of the Death Eaters, Miss Hermione. There is some still in Azkaban, and they is sentenced to life imprisonment. But Dobby reminds you that Dobby's own old Master was telling a _lie_ about being under the Imperius Curse."

Ron snapped his fingers. "That was it! Dad used to say some of the Death Eaters faked being under the Curse and bribed the Ministry to get out of having to go to Azkaban!"

Dobby nodded. "Dobby thinks you is ought to read about them." He noticed that Scabbers the rat seemed to be interested in the discussion.

"Say, what _is_ the Imperius Curse, exactly?" asked Harry.

Ron shuddered. "One of the Unforgivable Curses. It makes you do anything the caster wants. You use it, you get a life sentence in Azkaban."

Hermione said, "What are the others?"

"There's the Cruciatus Curse, which is a torture curse. And the Killing Curse. People sometimes say the Avada Kedavra, because that's how you incant it."

Harry put his hand to his head, then shook it. Dobby said, "Is you okay, Harry?"

Harry waved his hand. "Nothing. Just… something that's maybe a memory. Is it a flash of green light?"

Ron looked a bit green himself. He said, "That's what people say, yeah."

Harry looked at Hermione. "Do any of the books mention this … Curse?"

"At least one alleges you were directly hit with it."

Harry nodded grimly. "They're probably right. I remember the green light, which means I must have been hit with it."

Ron slumped back in his seat. "Well, _there's_ a cheery thought. Anyway, Dobby says we should read up on these people, eh? Well, I guess a little _light reading _couldn't hurt."

Hermione laughed and lightly struck Ron with her book. "Oh, you! I'll have you know I've got my _light reading_ all laid out and ready to go for the year. Which reminds me, did you two study out of that Potions book I copied for you?"

"Sort of skimmed it. Mostly used it to help write my essay for Snape's class," admitted Ron.

"I tried to read through it but I'm still not sure I follow some of the clockwise and counterclockwise movement things," said Harry.

Hermione began reeling off the answer: "It depends on the base of the potion…"

Dobby was aware that time had passed, but as he was but a house-elf and not a Potions expert he could not really follow the discussion.

He was just happy that there would be no Chamber of Secrets to worry about for this year, only a Malfoy he could easily defend against should he try to attack Harry or his friends.

At the announcement about changing into uniforms for Hogwarts, Dobby said, "Dobby is unlocking the door but not unfogging the windows. Dobby will go to Hogwarts now and wait for Harry Potter and his friends. If you is in any trouble, you is calling Dobby at once and he will come!"

Harry said, "Thanks, but I don't think there will be trouble. Where are you going to be while they do the Sorting?"

"Dobby will be helping with the food. There will be so much cleaning and cooking at Hogwarts!" Dobby was already excited at the thought of making Hogwarts the best place to be for Harry Potter.

"Okay; I guess we'll see you tonight, or something. Good luck."

Dobby popped away to begin assisting with the cooking, for there was much still to do before the food was ready for students to begin eating.

/\/\/\/\

Dobby materialised in a corner of the kitchen. He saw Wibby, a house-elf he had known in his old life. He rushed over and said, "Dobby wishes to help at Hogwarts! Where is Dobby being needed?"

Wibby, a bit confused, said, "Dobby can be helping with the mashed potatoes. The elves is having a hard time stirring them. Go!"

Dobby joined them as directed, and before long he was enthusiastically helping prepare and cook the mountains of food needed for the students. Finally, though, the frenetic activity in the kitchens slowed, then halted as the food simmered, waiting to be sent up to the Great Hall. Dobby thought he would carefully materialise just underneath the High Table, so he could see the students and hear the professors.

"—when I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," said Professor McGonagall.

As she ran through the list of names, Dobby peeked out from under the tablecloth and saw that his old Master Draco was looking a bit sour. He also saw that amidst the anxious first-year students crowding near the front, that Hermione Granger slipped an envelope to one of the Muggleborn Ravenclaws and another to one of the Muggleborn Hufflepuffs. She cast a dark look in the direction of the Slytherin table and settled down as McGonagall seemed to fix her gaze on some students in the rear before continuing to read off the names.

Dobby remembered that Professor Lockhart had been derided by Harry and Ron, and decided to find out why. Carefully popping into existence between Professor Lockhart and Professor Sprout, he overheard, "—now Venomous Tentacula – why, I've faced a fair few in _my_ day, let me tell you, and did I mention this particularly tricky one in Indonesia where—" Dobby listened, amazed that a person could speak and speak and speak without seeming to need to stop, and decided that if Professor Lockhart were always like this it seemed that he could step into a room and talk to himself without trouble.

And his voice hurt Dobby's ears a bit, too. He decided to move to Professor Snape (he thought darkly of how, when Snape was Headmaster, the Carrows were allowed to go to the kitchens and order the house-elves to shut their hands in the ovens, or iron their ears, or put their hands in the flames until the Carrows were satisfied).

As luck had it, Professor Snape was next to Headmaster Dumbledore, and he overheard the most interesting conversation.

"Severus, have you heard any indication from Lucius that he thinks his plan has gone awry?"

"Not at all, Headmaster. In fact, he's so confident he decided to go off to France with Narcissa and skip the next Board of Governors meeting." In a lower voice, but one still audible to Dobby's ears, Snape said, "The diary you showed me. It's the same one. How on _Earth_ did you lay your hands on it?"

"That, I think, is a matter for me to keep under my hat, as it were. We must anticipate that Lucius Malfoy will redouble his efforts to oust me as Headmaster when this plan of his fails to come to fruition."

Snape's voice turned somewhat acidic again. "Hmpf. I'm just glad Draco Malfoy seems to have learned some humility. Lucius losing a house-elf put him in an abominable mood and he seems to have had some sharp words with Draco over Draco's needless complaining about, as he puts it, 'saint bloody Harry Potter'."

"He lost a house-elf, did he?" Dobby shuffled nervously. He had not exactly told the truth about how he became a free elf.

"Apparently he incautiously gave a sock to the elf, and the elf immediately disappeared. I could have told him sooner or later his habit of ordering them to iron their hands for every little mistake was bound to backfire."

Dumbledore said calmly, "Well, if the elf makes its way to Hogwarts, as I'm sure sooner or later it will, there will be lots of work for it to do."

With that reminder, Dobby popped away to begin making the beds in Gryffindor Tower.

* * *

Author Notes: To take up some general comments - what reason would or could Dobby have for interfering in Harry's love life? He would probably keel over in shock at the idea. Also, I'd like to remind people this isn't a post-OotP fic where Harry has a lot more reason to want to take up the mantle of adulthood some time before the age of seventeen. He's twelve, has experienced a loving household for the first time, and is only vaguely worried at this point about why the Headmaster has made certain decisions concerning him. And Dobby is more concerned at this point with simply keeping Harry alive and better equipped to handle magic.


	7. Chapter 7

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 7

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby decided to quietly follow Harry from class to class. The first class was Herbology, and he noticed Professor Lockhart bothering Harry by the greenhouses while his classmates entered Greenhouse Three. Dobby decided to listen as the man spoke.

"Harry, Harry, Harry. I have just the plan for you. While we're here at Hogwarts, I could line up a series of interviews – very exclusive, you know – and get you _lots _of publicity! Well, with me, too, of course. Think about it! Gilderoy Lockhart and Harry Potter, together on the front page of _Witch Weekly_ in full colour."

Dobby noticed that Harry looked quite annoyed. Dobby flicked his finger, causing some mud to fly onto Lockhart's immaculate robes. Harry pointed and said, "Sir! Your robes…"

Lockhart flew into such a panic that he let go of Harry's shoulder, letting Harry duck into Greenhouse Three straightaway. Dobby amused himself watching as Lockhart began casting repeated cleaning charms on every part of the robe as he re-entered the castle. Dobby wondered if perhaps Fred and George Weasley would like to help play some jokes on the man.

Dobby busied himself by thinking again on Scabbers the rat. While he didn't know much about rats, he had heard that Scabbers was a very old rat, being about eleven years old already. Wizard magic was a little unusual to Dobby, so he was not entirely sure if the slight magic he felt from Scabbers meant the rat was a magical breed. Magical animals and humans, as a rule, tended to live longer. Dobby remembered Lucius discussing with Macnair the possibility of bypassing the Ministry rules on animal transfers to get a very old and unusual breed of crup, which he could breed for its unusually long tails. The crup had to have been thirty or more years old, when Muggle dogs generally only lived to be twenty at most.

Since he didn't know how Scabbers fit into things, Dobby wondered again if Hermione Granger had gone to get the trial transcripts for the Death Eaters. He knew if Harry were to read them all he would at least know who had actually been sent to Azkaban for serving He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

If the transcripts could not be found at Hogwarts Dobby had heard from a Ministry house-elf that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement would send them to anyone who asked. The exact details were a little unclear to him, being as he did not know exactly how a trial worked.

The closest Dobby had ever heard of a trial for a house-elf had been the old house-elf Hokey's, though she had simply confessed, and then had been executed straightaway. House-elves told the story of how she had been a very _bad_ house-elf to poison her mistress like that, even if it had been by accident, as she had tearfully said.

The bell rang. As Herbology class broke up, students left the greenhouse. Harry, when he came outside, espied Dobby hiding under a large bush. Under the pretext of wanting to look at the unusual leaves, Harry brought Ron over and pointed at a leaf, saying in a low voice, "That mud on Lockhart's robe was your idea, wasn't it? Brilliant! You saved me an earful of his ideas about getting me on _Witch Weekly_."

Ron shuddered and said, "Ghastly, mate. Good work, Dobby!"

"Dobby is happy to keep Professor Lockhart from annoying Harry. But Harry should be getting to class now."

Harry said loudly, "Ron, we can look at the bush later, maybe ask Sprout about it. Let's get to Transfiguration – McGonagall will take points if we're late!"

Dobby silently popped to near the Transfiguration room, hiding in the shadows as he watched the students begin the class. He busied himself with silently cleaning the floor all up and down the corridor, banishing the mud tracks the students left behind. After that, he began straightening up empty classrooms, waiting until the bell rang for the beginning of lunch.

Lunch proved to be normal, as Dobby found out when hiding under the High Table's tablecloth again. After Harry ate a reasonable amount (Dobby would be sure Harry ate well, of course!), he, Ron and Hermione left. Dobby waited until he sensed they were outside Hogwarts, then popped onto the roof overlooking the courtyard. His sensitive ears picked up the conversation between Colin Creevey and Harry.

"All right, Harry? I'm – I'm Colin Creevey," the small blond boy said, taking a tentative step forward. "I'm in Gryffindor, too. D'you think – would it be all right if – can I have a picture?" he said, raising the camera.

Dobby noticed former Master Draco striding towards Harry and his protective instincts rose to the fore immediately. As soon as he heard Draco say, "_Signed photos_—" Dobby snapped his fingers, causing Draco to stumble and inhale some of the courtyard dust.

Draco spluttered, rising to his feet amidst the laughter. "You won't find it so funny when you find out what my father's done, Potter!"

Ron guffawed, "Come off it, Malfoy. Unless he's somehow gotten you all Outstandings you're not worth the trouble."

"Says _you_, Weasel, when your wand's got a unicorn hair sticking out of it and looks like it's been used by your great-grandfather. No, wait, make that your _great_-great-grandfather!"

Hermione slammed her book shut, stood up, and said, "Malfoy! _Leave. Us. Alone_."

Whatever Draco was about to say was cut off when Professor Lockhart came into the courtyard, saying, "Harry, Harry, Harry! What's this I see? A young man with a camera, eh?" He gestured at Colin, who perked up, eagerly holding up his camera. "We'll _both _sign it for you, how about that?"

Dobby noticed Draco smirking maliciously as he led Crabbe and Goyle away from the crowd surrounding Professor Lockhart. For good measure, just as Draco mounted the steps at the other end of the courtyard to go back into the school, Dobby snapped his fingers again, causing all three boys to trip and slam heavily onto the stone steps.

He then refocused on Professor Lockhart, who was just disengaging from a very displeased Harry. Dobby noticed that a lot of dust and some mud had collected on the roof and hadn't been cleaned yet. He waited for the perfect opportunity and got it as Professor Lockhart swished his robe around to cast a quick cleaning charm on it, letting the rest of the crowd drift away and for Harry and his friends to break off as well.

At that moment, Dobby pointed his finger at some of the mud and dust, sending it all sliding off the edge of the roof to fall straight onto Professor Lockhart. The resulting scream of horror was worth the effort Dobby had taken to stay hidden out of sight as he heard Professor Lockhart bellow cleaning spells, clattering back into the school with a speed unmatched even by Peeves.

Dobby peeked over the roof and caught Harry's amused glance. Harry nodded briefly, then turned back to Ron and Hermione. Hermione said, "My goodness! I didn't realise the winds were so sudden. I do hope Professor Lockhart isn't hurt."

"I doubt it, Hermione. Anyway, don't we have Defence next with him anyway?" said Ron.

Dobby watched, confused, as Hermione's face turned somewhat red and she rushed into the school, followed by a slower-paced Ron and Harry. He waited until he knew Harry's location had settled in one place, then popped to just outside the Defence classroom and began busily cleaning the hallway there, listening as the class went on through the door that had been left ajar.

Professor Lockhart's voice boomed out of the room as he spoke.

"Me," he said. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honourary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and five times winner of _Witch Weekly's_ Most-Charming-Smile Award – but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"

Dobby darkly wondered if the professor had ever written a book about house-elves, and decided to make sure no house-elf would ever speak with him if that was to occur. He knew, from both of his lives, that the man had annoyed Harry. Why, the man had even Vanished Harry Potter's bones from his arm! Of course, that had been Dobby's fault too and he remembered ironing his hands many times when he had gone back to Malfoy Manor.

But Lockhart's voice certainly hurt Dobby's ears and it was only his devotion to Harry that kept him busily cleaning and listening in the hallway.

A bellowed, "_Peskipiksi Pesternomi_!" later, and chaos ensued in the classroom as students yelled and screamed amidst thuds and bangs. Dobby looked inside the classroom and saw pixies flying everywhere! But they were not dangerous, so Dobby contented himself knowing that Harry would deal with them, and that Professor Lockhart was not speaking in that annoying voice anymore.

Dobby wondered if perhaps he could be responsible for cleaning Professor Lockhart's room and clothes. He believed Harry would find that a subject for amusement. He popped away to talk to the laundry house-elves.

* * *

Author Note: Some of the material in here has been taken directly from _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_. Hope you're all having fun! :D


	8. Chapter 8

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 8

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

As it turned out, the laundry house-elves were only too happy to let Dobby assist them in cleaning Professor Lockhart's wardrobe.

As Dippy said, "We is happy to clean robes and clothes! But Dippy must confess to Dobby that Professor Lockhart's wardrobe is very hard work even for laundry elves. Dippy even had to slam his fingers in the door for not being able to clean the Hufflepuff students' robes until just before they is waking up!"

Dobby was shocked; Hogwarts elves almost _never_ had to punish themselves, and if the Headmaster noticed them doing it, he always put a stop to that straightaway.

Dobby said, "But Dobby is not sure how one person can be making such trouble for the laundry elves."

"Dippy knows. It is because they is very expensive Acromantula silk robes, shirts, trousers and even stockings. Students who has Acromantula silk robes usually has just one, and there is not many of those." Dippy's ears drooped and he wailed, "But Professor Lockhart has _so many!_ And we has to be _very careful_! We is careful with everything, of course, but if we is accidentally ripping a normal robe we can repair it right away. If you rips Acromantula silk it is needing special tailoring when you fixes it."

Dobby smirked. "Dobby will be very happy to help clean Professor Lockhart's clothes, and because Dobby is not a Hogwarts house-elf (but Dobby asks you to please not tell any master or mistress), Dobby will not have to punish himself if he rips one!"

Dippy gasped. "Who is your master?"

Proudly, Dobby said, "Harry Potter!"

The elves crowded around him. "You is Harry Potter's house-elf? Is he a good master? Is he punishing you like Zimmy is hearing Dobby's old Master would make Dobby do?"

Dobby gladly answered that Harry Potter was as kind and as noble as the house-elves had always imagined, and that he treated Dobby as a _friend_, not just an elf.

The laundry elves were overjoyed to hear that the Boy-Who-Lived, who had saved them from the terror of imagining that Hogwarts might be taken over by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, would be friendly and nice to them if ever he should meet them.

Dobby said, "And Dobby does not think Harry Potter likes Professor Lockhart." He grinned even as the laundry elves shuddered at the notion of directly criticizing a Professor.

/\/\/\/\

When Dobby brought this up with Harry that night in Gryffindor Tower, Harry struck his knee and laughed. He said, "That's great!" He frowned and said, "Ron? Something wrong?"

Ron looked a little pale. "Sorry, Harry. Just hearing about anything to do with spiders always puts me off."

Harry's smile faded. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry about that. What, are Acromantulas spiders?"

Ron shuddered and said, "Great big bloody spiders! I've heard they can even talk to you. Anyway, can we change the subject?"

"Sure. How about what Dobby can do? Did you see what he did today? Made all that dirt go falling right onto him!"

Ron pointed. "That was you? Brilliant! Great git was telling Colin to take a bunch of pictures and he and Harry'd sign them all. And now Hermione's going on and on about all the stuff he _says_ he's done. It's bad enough Mum fancies him a little bit."

Dobby bowed. "Dobby is pleased to have been of service. Dobby wishes to ask Harry what he should do with Professor Lockhart's clothes."

"Hmm. What about making them change colours?"

Ron laughed. He said, "Mate, he'll just pass that off as another fashion thing and all the girls'll be doing it before the week's out. But I could swear I caught a whiff of a Sleakeazy cologne. What if you made it so his clothes smelled?"

Dobby said, "Dobby hates to interrupt, but Dobby believes Ron Weasley's brothers Fred and George can help."

Ron sighed. "Say, Dobby? If I asked, would you keep them from pranking me – well, too much, anyway?"

Dobby looked at Harry, who nodded. He said, "Dobby would be happy to, as Harry has not said no."

Ron got off the bed. "All right, I'll get the twins. Be right back."

/\/\/\/\

After hearing the story, one of the twins said, "So, let me get this straight. Lockhart the ponce – we had him in Defence today and had to write the same exam as you did – has all these expensive clothes and the house-elves actually _hate_ him for it and will let you do what you want to the clothes?"

Dobby fidgeted. "House-elves is not _hating_ humans, at least we is not supposed to do that. But we is certainly not pleased to serve those who does not appreciate what we is doing." Even that felt a bit much and Dobby resisted the sudden urge to slam his head into the bedpost.

"Whatever it is, the bottom line is, they won't complain if you… say, add your own personal style to Lockhart's clothes."

"Dobby does not think they will mind, especially if it is meaning that they can clean the student laundry in time."

The other twin said, "There is that. Mum always goes on about how we make twice as much work for her as the rest of us Weasleys. She's quit going into our room every day when we're home over the summer, you know, because there's always a potion or three spilled on the floor and the explosions annoy her enough as it is."

Ron narrowed his eyes. "Why _are_ you doing all that stuff in there, anyway, Fred?"

Sunnily, Fred said, "None of your business, ickle Ronnikins. Anyway, George, let's go get some of that stinksap-based powder we made. Didn't work quite right as the smell fades too quickly, but even just making Lockhart paranoid about his outfit'll be worth it."

George said, "Moral of the story: it never pays to annoy the people who can clean your place _and_ make your life miserable."

The twins left and Ron said, "Good thing Neville, Seamus and Dean are all down in the Common Room. I'd hate having to explain Dobby to them."

"Dobby will try to find a room where he is able to meet Harry and Ron without trouble," Dobby said, thinking immediately of the Come and Go Room.

The twins returned with a small canister. George gave it to Dobby and said, "Now, Dobby, _please_ don't spill this on any of the students' outfits. As much as we enjoy a good prank, we'd like to avoid this particular one from stinking up the school."

Dobby held the canister tightly as he said, "Dobby will not put it on Professor Lockhart's clothes until he has finished getting ready to put them back in Professor Lockhart's room."

Fred snickered and said, "If you do it right I bet he'll think his cologne's just gone off. Say, could you nick the bottle, Dobby? I bet we could hex the expiry date to make it look like he bought it too long ago and just forgot to replace it."

"Dobby will try to do this!"

George clapped his hands. "All right. Fred and I have some more strategic planning to do. Good night, all."

After the twins left, Ron whistled. "I wouldn't want to be Lockhart now, that's for sure!"

Harry chuckled. He said, "Dobby, do you want to stay for a bit or do you need to get that back to the laundry?"

"Dobby should leave so that Harry is not asked questions by his housemates. Dobby also should begin his part of the plan."

"Ok. See you later."

Dobby popped away and returned to the laundry. He found a bundle of Professor Lockhart's silk robes to be returned, and picked them up, popping away with them.

In the dark room, Dobby noticed with satisfaction that Lockhart was sleeping deeply. He cast a small enhanced-sleep spell just in case, pointing his finger at the wizard, who sighed contentedly, his breathing evening out even more.

Dobby began hanging the silk robes in the wardrobe, just as he had done so many times for the Malfoys. Dobby abruptly realised he didn't have to use _all _of the powder, as there seemed to be quite enough for many uses. He laid one robe out on the floor and sprinkled it all up and down the inside, as well as on the sleeves. He wrinkled his nose at the definite odor, and recapped the powder. He used a levitation spell and got it onto a hanger in the wardrobe without having to touch it. Then Dobby closed the wardrobe doors, remembering to find a discarded bottle of the cologne Professor Lockhart used. He secreted that away in the quarters he was using, which was a set of rooms in the disused house-elf quarters at the base of Gryffindor Tower.

Dobby then popped away to the Malfoy mansion. Upon discovering that his old Master and Mistress were still in France, he promptly powdered the bed and mistress's robes, hoping that the elves would not clean them in the meantime and that they would return before the odor faded.

Back at Hogwarts, Dobby secreted the powder in his living quarters and readied for a short sleep.

* * *

Author Notes: And here's more pranking!Dobby. :D Most of the pranks may seem relatively simple, but Dobby is not aiming for sophistication so much as irritation.


	9. Chapter 9

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 9

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

The next day, Dobby intercepted Fred and George to give them the empty bottle of cologne; they promised to get it back to him by lunch, or at the worst, by the end of the day. After that, Dobby went to the Great Hall to hide under the High Table. He peeked out from under the tablecloth and noticed Gilderoy Lockhart walking quickly, his nose twitching just a bit. He briefly waved at some students, then hurriedly sat in his seat. Dobby poked his head out the other side one chair down from Lockhart, and noticed the man attempting to quickly sniff his sleeve.

Dobby ventured under the table to get near to Lockhart, and noticed to his surprise the stinksap smell was almost gone. This must be what Fred and George had meant when they complained the smell went away too fast. Dobby hoped that meant the powder needed to be covered and that it wouldn't lose its smell as quickly.

Another person sat next to Lockhart, and their legs made Dobby's manoeuverings an adventure as he carefully moved to avoid being struck by their foot.

A woman's voice sounded in his ears: "Good morning, ah, Gilderoy, is it?"

A bit distractedly, Professor Lockhart's voice replied, "Yes, good morning… Professor Sinistra, is it?"

Dobby heard Professor Sinistra let out a small giggle. He thought he could see them shaking hands. "Aurora, if you don't mind. And, forgive me for saying so, but you seem a bit distracted today."

Lockhart laughed heartily, though Dobby believed the Professor sounded a bit nervous. "Oh, it's nothing! I think I may have put the wrong cologne on this morning; how careless of me!"

Professor Sinistra replied, "Hmm. It might be that your cologne has gone off. I can't tell for sure; it does vaguely smell like stinksap around here, but… that could just be my imagination, really."

The conversation soon revolved to another recital of Lockhart's adventures hunting werewolves in the Ukraine, and Dobby decided working for the dishwashing elves would be a better use of his time.

They were only too happy to have him help with the cleaning; word had gotten around about him being Harry Potter's house-elf, and he proudly answered all their questions, being sure to inform them how kind and gentle the great Harry Potter was.

/\/\/\/\

Harry called for Dobby for the first time at lunch. Dobby was just stacking some plates when he heard the call, and he popped away, knowing the Hogwarts elves would know what had happened.

Harry was sitting on the grass by the Quidditch Pitch with Fred and George. Harry said, "Thanks for coming, Dobby. Fred and George said they've got something for you."

One of the twins said, "Quite right, Harry! Here you go, Dobby. We fixed the date so it looks like it expired yesterday. Can you switch it with the bottle he has now?"

Dobby nodded, his ears flapping. "Dobby will not have trouble doing this!"

Harry said, "Looks pretty good. What did you do, Fred, just Transfigure it?"

"Yeah. Normally it's tamper-proof because they engrave the actual date in and then charm the container to be impervious to modification. Normally the container goes back to the manufacturer – somehow, we're not sure – and they re-charm it, et cetera. A bit of trial and error let us break the charm and Transfigure the engraving.

"Anyway, Dobby, how'd it go? We saw Lockhart sniffing his robes when he thought nobody was looking and he rushed through Defence lecture sweating like crazy. He kept sniffing the air during class, too."

George chimed in, saying, "And Katie came to us at lunch and wondered if poor Professor Lockhart was feeling a bit sick today. I think quite a few of the girls looked concerned, actually. The blokes all had a good laugh and wondered if he was going barmy."

"Dobby was under the High Table this morning and did not smell much stinksap. Professor Sinistra was telling him she is thinking it is his cologne being expired."

The three boys all broke up laughing. "Fixing up that bottle was a stroke of genius, it was!" roared Fred as he pounded the grass with his fist.

George, recovering, said, "Well, looks like it actually worked out for us that the smell goes away that quickly. Might make him go barmy pretty quickly, so let's not do it too often."

Harry said, "Okay, Dobby, you should go before classes start for the afternoon. Lockhart might be back in his room already."

Dobby popped away without a word. Luckily, he found that Professor Lockhart was not yet in his room, so he quickly replaced the Sleekeazy cologne bottle with the false one, then opened the one that still had some fluid in it and transferred it over to the false bottle. To make the ruse complete, he popped to his elf quarters, took a tiny pinch of the stinksap-laced powder, and dropped it into the false bottle. After that, he replaced the top, then left with the real bottle to drop it back in his quarters.

No sooner did Dobby return, unobtrusively hiding atop the wardrobe, when Professor Lockhart rushed into the room, frantically casting off his robes as he went into the bathroom. Shortly after, he heard a cry of horror as Lockhart rushed back out, holding the bottle of cologne. The Professor looked feverishly about, then seemed to get an idea. Dobby popped into the hallway, then unobtrusively followed along, staying in the roof rafters as he popped fifty feet at a time. Lockhart finally rushed to an open window which looked down onto a disused portion of the grounds that had been overgrown with trees, brush and weeds. He threw the bottle with considerable force, then turned around and stalked back to his quarters.

Dobby quickly materialized on the window ledge to see where the bottle went, and noticed it just brushed past a tree several hundred feet away to land, he thought, in a thicket of trees where few students bothered to go.

At that point, the bell rang to signal afternoon classes, and Dobby decided to secret himself in Potions class to watch Professor Snape.

If Dobby had his way, that man would never become Headmaster.

/\/\/\/\

Dobby found the perfect place atop a dusty ingredients cabinet, hidden in the shadows of the dark dungeon classroom.

The second-year Gryffindor and Slytherin students trooped in, setting their books on the lab benches as Snape flicked his wand at the blackboard, causing the day's potions preparation instructions to be visible.

Snape's acid voice filled the room. "Today, assuming you dunderheads have retained anything from my revision of first-year Potions in your previous class, you all shall make the Forgetfulness Potion, which was on your practical examination. Begin!"

Dobby held himself perfectly still, ensconced in the shadows as he watched Snape stalk about the class, then seat himself at his desk and begin marking some homework assignments.

Dobby's first opportunity came when Snape got up out of his chair and made directly for Longbottom's desk. "_Longbottom_! Perhaps such a Squib as yourself can at least _read_ the instructions which clearly state to _chop_ the black beetle bodies, not simply toss them in as though you were _blind_!"

Incensed, Dobby waited until Snape turned his back on the trembling Neville and began moving to another table. He snapped his fingers, causing Snape to fly headlong to the floor.

Ron let out a strangled laugh, and promptly clamped down on it as soon as Snape whipped to his feet, roaring, "If I find out who tripped me that student shall be in detention for the rest of term!"

Snape stomped to his desk in an abominable mood. Just as he was about to sit down, Dobby caused the chair to move back slightly, as though Snape's leg had brushed it before he sat down. As a result, when Snape threw himself into the chair, he did so at an awkward angle, tipping the chair a bit. Dobby flicked his hand, causing the chair to overbalance, sending Snape crashing to the floor.

This seemed to be the final tipping point, as Snape stood up, trembling in a terrible rage. His voice was soft and incisive. "All of you are to finish the Forgetfulness Potion AT ONCE and I expect not to hear a _word_ from anyone! At all! NOW CONTINUE!"

Snape righted the chair, sat down, and began pressing so hard with his quill he actually tore a parchment in half with the point when he put a flourish on what Dobby thought must be a rather long sentence.

The entire Potions class, in a very subdued mood, continued to work. Even Draco Malfoy kept his eyes on his potion and not on anyone else's.

Dobby wondered if it was possible to actually make Snape "go barmy". If so, then he would certainly not be the Headmaster!

/\/\/\/\

As though thinking about the Headmaster had been a signal, Dobby decided to find Headmaster Dumbledore and popped up to the rafters near the Headmaster's office. As luck would have it, Headmaster Dumbledore was just down the hall and was soothing an anxious Professor Lockhart.

"Gilderoy, I detect no offensive odours from your person. You should know that we have some rather famous pranksters in Hogwarts by the names of Fred and George Weasley. I highly suspect this is simply another of their… shall I say, bright ideas?"

Professor Lockhart attempted to look dignified as he said, "Well, I really think it isn't _funny_! After all, if rumours get around—"

"If they do, they will just be rumours. Come, have some tea with me in my office and we shall chat for a bit. You do look as though you could use a good cup."

Professor Lockhart sighed and fiddled with his hat. "I suppose you're right. Now, did I mention, by the way, the time I defeated a herd of magical Wendigoes in Canada by means of-"

Dobby heard no more as the gargoyle moved aside and the two men went into the Headmaster's office. He decided he would need to warn Fred and George about this turn of events, but was grateful the laundry elves would not have to punish themselves for his part in the prank.

* * *

Author Note: Dumbledore certainly can be tolerant of Lockhart when soothing ruffled feathers. :P And yes, Dobby has a lot of his own reasons to do things to Snape, between hearing of him from Harry on occasion and his own experiences. Snape's overreaction is typical of someone who strains to keep his position of power vis-a-vis students by means of intimidation and presence. Tripping and falling would upset any teacher, but him more so because he's boxed himself into a corner where any pratfall WILL mean the students will laugh outside of class. We already know he can be prone to extreme fits of anger as witness the scene in PoA in the Hospital Wing.


	10. Chapter 10

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 10

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby hid under the Gryffindor table at supper, and overheard the students babbling about Snape's sudden pratfalls in Potions class. Ron was breathlessly saying to Fred, "You should have seen Snape. Fell right over on his arse when he sat down wrong in the chair! I couldn't believe it. Of course, he was _bloody_ angry after that. I think I must have sweated worse than I ever did at de-gnoming back home!"

Fred (or George) slapped the table and laughed. "Wish I could have seen that, Ron. Would have been worth the term of detentions to laugh at _that_. Look at him. He's stabbing the food on his plate so hard he's likely to crack it!"

Dobby popped under the High Table, and picked up Snape's mutterings. "Bloody—effing—chair… I'll catch the miscreant who did it even if it takes me the next _decade_…!"

Dumbledore's even voice broke in as he assumed his seat. "Severus, I take it from your mood, and the rumours circulating around the school, that something happened in your Potions class today?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Headmaster," ground out Snape. Dobby moved out of the way as he stamped his foot.

Dumbledore sighed. "Very well, Severus. But my office door is always open to you. It also would do you well to realise that coerced respect often is a poor facsimile of the real thing, and breaks apart a lot more easily."

Snape's only answer was a sharp _clang_ of his fork against the plate. Dobby grinned. Mission accomplished!

He popped away to join the dishwashing elves, happily stacking the plates for the morrow's breakfast.

/\/\/\/\

Dobby was called by Harry that weekend to the far corner of the library. He quietly popped into existence, shielded by Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Harry was saying, "Hullo, Dobby. Listen, we need a place to talk quietly, without any trouble from anyone. Have the Hogwarts house-elves told you anything?"

Dobby perked up. "Dobby knows the _perfect_ place! We calls it the Come and Go Room. Dobby is meeting you outside the painting on the seventh floor showing Barnabas the Barmy who is trying to teach trolls to dance the ballet."

Ron chuckled and said, "What a sight that must be! C'mon, let's go. We'll see you there, Dobby."

Dobby popped away, hiding himself in the shadows behind the man-sized vase at the end of the corridor. After some minutes, the trio walked up and goggled at the painting before chuckling as they took in the image.

Dobby rushed up to them, saying, "Good, you is here! Now, you is seeing this wall which has no doors in it. If you will walk up and down the hallway three times thinking very clearly what you is wanting, a door will appear here and you is going in."

Hermione looked quite skeptical, but slowly said, "All right, then." She handed off a book and a packet of papers to Ron, then said, "Okay. I'll imagine that we need a quiet room where we can talk without being disturbed."

Her jaw set, Hermione paced up and down the corridor three times, while Harry and Ron watched the wall apprehensively.

And as sure as trolls could not dance, the door appeared just as Hermione went by that part of the wall on the third pass. The trio of humans gasped. Harry tentatively reached for the door, which opened to admit the foursome.

The room was evenly lit with four comfortable chairs surrounding a round table. The carpeting deadened the sound of their feet, and after Dobby closed the door, it squelched shut. The walls were a creamy beige colour, as was the ceiling. Hermione nodded approvingly. "This looks like a conference room my father took me to once."

Harry said, "Yeah, I saw something like this on the telly when Dudley didn't think I was watching."

Hermione's lips thinned, and she looked about to say something when Ron said, "Hmm. Wonder if we could get a drink? I could do with some pumpkin juice."

Even as he said it, a pitcher and four glasses appeared on the round table. Ron whistled in appreciation and sat at a chair, placing the book and paper packet on the table to one side, and then pouring himself a glass.

Dobby waited until the others sat down, and then hesitantly took a chair, noting that Harry smiled. Dobby thought he must surely be the only house-elf that was treated as such an equal, and fought off the urge to throw his arms around Harry's legs in appreciation of the height of this benevolence.

Dobby hesitantly said, "Dobby believes …" Gaining confidence, he sat up straighter and continued. "Dobby believes that wizards is calling this the _Room of Requirement_."

Harry said, "Seems to fit; Ron wanted pumpkin juice so the Room gave him some. And Hermione wanted a quiet conference room so the Room made one for her."

Hermione said, "Anyway, over the last week I've been busy researching these Death Eater trials. I found out the library's records are incomplete; Madam Pince told me this is because the Ministry keeps some of the less well-known ones. I wrote in asking for summaries of all trials of public record from 1971 to 1983; the transcripts would be too much for an owl to carry, if this book"—Hermione pointed—"is any guide. It's a compendium of the most famous Death Eater trial transcript plus background material."

Hermione took a breath and continued. "So, this piece of parchment summarises the names of each Death Eater tried, the trial date, and conviction or acquittal. And this other piece of parchment is a selection of cuttings from the _Daily Prophet_ for the same time period – just the headline trials, though."

Harry grabbed up the list, while Ron eyed the cuttings.

Harry mumbled, "Hmm. Most of these are from 1979 to 1982. Rowle, Carrow… hmm, Mulciber, Jugson, Dolohov, convicted… a-ha, here's Malfoy. Acquitted, obviously. Parkinson, acquitted, Avery, acquitted, Macnair, acquitted, Crabbe Senior and Goyle Senior, acquitted."

Ron burst out laughing. "Acquitted! They were probably too stupid to even show up at trial. Look at the Crabbe and Goyle with Malfoy! Think they could walk anywhere by themselves if Malfoy wasn't around?"

Hermione said, "Actually, maybe Dobby can confirm this. Did Malfoy's father say anything about bribing the Wizengamot or the Wizard's Council?"

Dobby thought, and remembered. "Dobby did hear former Master Lucius telling a solicitor to be sure that the trial for Crabbe and Goyle was to be 'dismissed for lack of evidence'."

Hermione snapped her fingers. "That's it, then. They weren't acquitted for being mentally incompetent, even if that's what it says there. They were acquitted so Malfoy would have someone to trade favours with later, because otherwise they'd have gone to prison, surely!"

Harry nodded. "Seems to have been traded in, all right. Crabbe and Goyle stick to Malfoy like superglue. Their fathers must have told them to stay close."

Harry then continued. "Rookwood, convicted. Hey, here's a last name. Nott, acquitted. Nott, Nott… anybody we know here?"

"Dobby is thinking you is meaning Theodore Nott."

"Right. His father, maybe."

Harry frowned. "Hey, what's this? Secret proceedings, name withheld. Acquittal."

Dobby knew who it was (Severus Snape), but could not find a way to tell Harry without telling him about the time travel, and that would surely create more problems. So he frustratedly sat, patiently waiting for them to continue.

Finally, Harry finished with "Lestrange, Lestrange, Lestrange, Crouch Junior. Convicted."

Ron looked startled, "_Crouch_ Junior? There's a bloke in the Ministry dad knows. His name's Barty Crouch Senior. That says his _son_ got convicted of being a Death Eater? No wonder he's in International Magical Cooperation. You'll never become Minister for Magic that way."

Hermione pointed at the large volume. "That book's all about the trial. It's one of the more famous precisely because it involves the son of a high-ranking Ministry official. At the time. Bartemius Crouch Senior, it says—"

Hermione picked up the book, located a page and began reading: "Bartemius Crouch, Senior, was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement until 1983. Transferred to the Department of International Magical Cooperation by Millicent Bagnold, former Minister for Magic. Crouch's career has largely been considered to be stalled and he is not currently likely to be a viable candidate for Minister for Magic should the current Minister, Cornelius Fudge, retire."

"Lucky he didn't get sent to the Centaur Office," joked Ron.

At Harry and Hermione's puzzled looks, he said, "Well, it's like this. My dad says if you're about to get sacked, you get sent to run the Centaur Liaison Office. Since the centaurs never deal with the Ministry it's considered a dead-end job and anyone who goes there resigns pretty quickly."

Dobby said, "Dobby points out that Dobby's former Master Lucius knows many things about people and he is thinking perhaps Mister Crouch sir is also knowing many things about people."

Hermione tilted her head and frowned. "So you're saying Crouch might have arranged a _quid pro quo_ in exchange for not being fired? Because he knows enough unsavoury secrets about others?"

"Dobby is not sure what a kwid pro kwo is, but Dobby is definitely thinking Barty Crouch sir is knowing _many_ things other people is not wanting to be known."

"Hmpf. The more I find out about the magical world the more I dislike the venality, corruption and lack of logic."

Ron protested, "It's not _all_ bad! I mean, look at Mum and Dad."

Harry said, "And Hermione, if it wasn't for the wizarding world I'd still be cleaning rugs at the Dursleys. I was going to go to Stonewall Comprehensive and try to somehow get out from the Dursleys when I was sixteen, or something, and… well, I still have no idea what I'd have been able to do as a Muggle."

Hermione sighed. "I understand the points you're making, but Ron, your parents treated mine like some kind of… curious foreigner to be gawked at. I know they mean well, but you really need to make them understand this. And on top of all that I'm finding out the wizarding government, if possible, is even more shot through with bribery and corruption than the Muggle! Look at those trial summaries. I didn't show you the charge sheets, but they're in the pile of parchments. Some of those people acquitted, if you check the Prophet cuttings, are reported to be extremely wealthy, and were all allegedly under the Imperius Curse, even though they are reliably alleged to have committed at least—where's that charge sheet for Malfoy's dad?"

Hermione flipped through the parchments still on the table, extracted one, and began reading. She rapidly turned white, and said, "I'm not sure I want to read all of it out loud, but here's a selection. Alleged to have performed at least three separate instances of Muggle-baiting in which Muggle vehicles were enchanted to lose control at high velocity. Alleged to have performed … well, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but there's numerous murders, several reported briberies, and so on. I'll just say the 'and so on' would leave any girl not wanting to get near Malfoy's dad if they're true.

"Now, granted, if he were under the Imperius Curse he's not legally responsible for what he did, but what's interesting is that the identity of the person who cast the actual diagnostic spells to determine for curses and hexes is conveniently unreadable, and the actual list of diagnostic spells wasn't properly magically certified."

Ron snorted. "What did my dad call it that one time he caught someone with the wrong form? Oh yeah, a 'procedural error'."

Hermione frowned. "Procedural error, my foot! This could probably be justifiably so, but Dobby's word is good enough for me to not believe the verdict or the 'Imperius Curse Positive' on this charge sheet."

Harry broke in saying, "Okay. We could spend all day in here picking apart all the acquittals. I think the bottom line is this: how dangerous _are_ these people, to us? To me, personally? Dumbledore doesn't think Voldemort is dead and his word's good enough for me on that subject."

Dobby said, "If He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is not dead, then surely he will come back?"

Ron said, "I don't want to believe it… I just don't. Mum and Dad don't talk about it much, but Mum got really worried – as in, _really_ worried when Fred and George didn't come back on time from the grocery shop in Ottery St. Catchpole, and I heard her say to Dad, 'what if it's like Gideon and Fabian?' real quiet-like.

"That's my Uncle Gideon and Uncle Fabian, or they would be but they died years ago, when You-Know-Who was sending out his Death Eaters. I think Mum still gets really afraid and thinks back to that time when that happens. Look, I'm not saying you're wrong, mate, but… be careful who you talk to about this. I grew up normally for my whole life thanks to you, Harry."

Dobby said, "Dobby thinks the best thing Harry Potter and his friends can be doing is to be learning _lots_ of magic. You has the perfect place to do it, too!"

Harry laughed. "Of course! We're in a room that can be anything we want it to be. What kind of spells should we practice, anyway? I reckon for starters all the first-year ones we know, right?"

Ron said, "Yeah. And I can get Percy's spellbooks. He'll be pleased I'm reading ahead. Even if he does get a bit stuffy at times."

Hermione finished by saying, "I've got all sorts of extra books I can bring; we can try some of the advanced material, but it might take a long time until we can master it."

"I'll drink to that," said Ron as he poured himself another glass of pumpkin juice. "So let's assume these people aren't going to do anything to us at school or when we're with our parents. But we won't be in school or at home forever and it's like chess, you know; if you can think ahead of your opponent you can control the board and get to checkmate."

Harry nodded. "Okay, how about we go over that big trial transcript and then, if we can handle them, the charge sheets for the others? Then we can write off for all the trial transcripts if we want. Dobby, could you take them all if you had to?"

"Dobby can move anything Harry wishes! Dobby reminds Harry that he moved Harry's trunk, broom and other things to the Burrow."

Hermione looked impressed. "I didn't know house-elves could do so much! Can I meet the ones here sometime?"

Dobby replied, "Dobby will be happy to take you to meet the house-elves in the kitchens. But we is doing that later, Dobby thinks."

Hermione picked up the large tome and began reading out loud.

"Council of Magical Law session, January 11, 1982, starting at ten o'clock AM.

Bartemius Crouch, Senior: I open the case of _Ministry versus Rodolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Bartemius Crouch, Junior._ Interrogators…"

Dobby listened as the trio passed the book from one to the other, reading through the trial of those who had tortured the Longbottoms. It was always sobering to realise the company his old Master had kept.

* * *

Author Note: And now we have serious!Dobby. :)


	11. Chapter 11

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 11

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby tagged along to watch Quidditch practice with Harry early the next morning. Unfortunately, Oliver Wood had it in mind to discuss all sorts of strategies in the changing room and it was only by virtue of quietly popping away to clean the Quidditch Pitch goalposts that Dobby was able to stay awake.

Just as the sun rose over the horizon, Dobby felt Harry's position change, and noticed that Ron and Hermione had sat down in the stands to watch the Gryffindors practice. He popped near them and greeted them, waiting for Harry to enter the Pitch.

A sudden _click_ from a camera got Dobby's attention, and he noticed Colin Creevey taking lots of pictures. Dobby wondered if Harry would be upset by Dobby conjuring a lens cap for that camera.

As soon as Harry entered the Pitch and began flying around, Colin yelled, "Look this way, Harry! This way!"

Dobby decided to conjure the lens cap after seeing Harry's sour expression.

Not noticing this, Colin began taking more pictures as Dobby anxiously searched the Pitch for any dangers to Harry. His ears drooped when he saw the Slytherin Quidditch team enter the Pitch, and he espied former Master Draco's blond hair amid the group.

Dobby saw the Gryffindor Quidditch team fly down to meet the Slytherins. Oliver Wood's face was particularly red.

"Flint!" Wood bellowed at the Slytherin captain. "This is our practice time! We got up specially! You can clear off now!"

Flint smirked as Wood bellowed, "But I booked the pitch! I booked it!"

Coolly, Flint replied, "Ah, but I've got a specially signed note here from Professor Snape. 'I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch pitch, owing to the need to train their new Seeker.'"

Dobby hid himself underneath the stands, watching as the Slytherin Quidditch team showed off their new Nimbus 2001 brooms. It seemed old Master Lucius must have bought the brooms before Dobby got his sock.

Hermione, none too impressed when she came down from the stands, looked flintily at the team members as former Master Draco mocked the Cleansweep Fives the Gryffindor team had to use. Ron's face became quite red. Harry's face was expressionless.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in," said Hermione sharply. "_They_ got in on pure talent."

"No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood," Draco spat.

At once, the Gryffindor team members began yelling and it appeared a fight would break out. Ron bellowed, "You'll pay for that one, Malfoy!"

Unfortunately, Draco was just as quick with his wand, and his counterspell struck Ron's in midair, splashing magical energy every which way. Dobby thrust his hand forth, causing Draco to tumble backwards, his robes becoming particularly dirty.

Colin Creevey had, by this time, run down, eagerly snapping pictures. He anxiously said, "Is everything all right? I saw you trip and fall there, Malfay."

Draco jumped up, his words bitter with acid. "I don't need a Mudblood first-year to help me! And it's _Malfoy_, you idiot. Shows what you know. You can't even take pictures right!"

Colin looked at his camera, noticing the lens cap with dismay. The Slytherin team abruptly collapsed in laughter, sending a tearful Colin Creevey running back to the castle in humiliation.

Wood barked, "Forget it! Practice is ruined for the day. Let's clean up and leave the Slytherins to their new Seeker." His face looked particularly twisted, as though he really disliked missing any Quidditch at all.

The Gryffindors stalked off the Pitch, with Ron and Hermione bringing up the rear. She said, "We should check on Colin, you know. That wasn't very nice of Malfoy."

Ron nodded. "Yeah, I suppose. Even if he's kind of annoying for Harry."

Dobby saw one last chance to get some revenge. As the Slytherin Quidditch team recovered their composure, Draco's broom was very close to Flint's feet. As Flint stepped forward, Dobby twitched his finger, making it appear that Draco's broom had got entangled with Flint's feet.

Flint bounced up and roared, "You think that's _funny_, Malfoy? Tripping me?" He shoved Draco's shoulder, hard. "_I'm_ Quidditch Captain. Dad or no Dad, I won't keep you on the team if you're going to keep making me look bad! Now get up there and catch the effing Snitch or I'll break that broom over your head."

Draco looked mutinous and said, "When my _Father _hears about—"

One of the other Slytherins said, "Oh, bollocks to your father! If he makes Snape take these brooms off us we'll make damn sure everybody in Slytherin knows who just cost us our chances at the Quidditch Cup! With the way Dumbledore gave out house points to Gryffindor like candy at the last minute, Snape's been on us all to make sure we can take the Quidditch Cup. So shut the hell up and do what you're told!"

Dobby smirked and popped away, satisfied that Draco would be in for trouble at his special Quidditch practice. He decided to make sure Fred and George knew about Professor Lockhart being told about them, and to ask if the stinksap-laced powder would lose its smell inside the container, or if the powder had to be outside the container to lose its smell.

/\/\/\/\

Dobby was called by Harry later in the day, and Dobby quickly smoothed out the last of the bedsheets in the Hufflepuff second-year boy's dormitory before materialising in the Come and Go Room, which was again in the conference-room shape.

Harry said, "Hullo, Dobby. Listen, we've been going over the old trials in the 1980s and I want to check something with you."

Dobby's ears pricked up. "Dobby is happy to help!"

"Great. Have a seat, would you?"

Dobby sat down, and Ron said, "Here, you see all these headlines? Er, I don't know if you can read."

Hermione, scandalised, said, "_Ron!_"

Dobby said, "It is all right. Miss Granger. House-elves is not always taught to read because house-elves is not needing to always read things. But Dobby did learn how, but he had to do it most secretly. Dobby does not think he can write very well, however."

"Well, that's still an absolute shame," huffed Hermione.

Ron said, "Anyway, there's all these headlines here about a man named Sirius Black – like 'Black caught in alleyway after killing twelve Muggles!', and 'Pettigrew assumed dead, only thumb remains after explosion!", but look at Harry's list there." He handed Dobby the headline cuttings from the _Prophet_ and other newspapers.

Harry said, "There's no trial at all for Sirius Black. Even if you assume the wizarding world has really quick trials, there's still more than enough of these on my list to assume some of them were real open-and-shut cases."

Hermione chimed in. "In the case of the three Lestranges and Crouch trial, the transcripts show that they actually _confessed_ and were caught almost _flagrante delicto_ – that means, in the actual act. Well, even under those conditions they still got a trial. So why didn't this Sirius Black get one?"

Harry frowned. "Maybe it was just that obvious? I mean, one thing that bothers me a lot is this one title here: 'Black named Secret Keeper for Potters, Dumbledore says.'"

Harry's face took on a shade of the terrible anger Dobby remembered seeing once when in his fifth year, he had been in a most foul mood because He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had been sending him visions. Harry hissed, "Did this man attack my parents? Was this man helping _Voldemort_?"

Dobby piped up. "Dobby thinks perhaps you is ought to be asking the Ministry for the trial of Sirius Black."

Hermione said reasonably, "Harry, this is pretty unusual. We should check it out if this Black person should be really dangerous to you if he gets out of prison."

"But nobody's ever escaped from Azkaban before!" exclaimed Ron.

Hermione shook her head. "There's always a first time for anything. The law of averages, Ronald."

Harry said morosely, "You know, now I know how Neville feels. Knowing someone's out there, still alive, who did something terrible to my parents."

Ron whistled. "Yeah. Poor bloke. And we shouldn't say anything to him about it. Be right awkward, you know."

Harry snapped his fingers. "Say! Lestrange! Didn't you say Malfoy's mum once visited her?"

Dobby nodded eagerly. "Yes! Dobby did say this! Bellatrix Lestrange is Dobby's old Mistress's sister!"

The trio looked gobsmacked. Dobby thought anyone would be a little surprised to discover that Narcissa Malfoy, wife to one of the wealthiest men in wizarding Britain, was related to Bellatrix Lestrange, notorious Death Eater.

Hermione was the first to recover. She said, "Well, we hadn't quite finished the Appendixes to the book that discussed the Crouches and Lestranges, but let's see…"

She flipped quickly to the end and squealed, "A-ha!"

She laid the book out on the table and pointed. "Here's the family tree for the Lestranges. See? Right there's her sister, Narcissa Malfoy. And they were born with the last name Black. And over here's a cousin, indicated with a dotted line for some reason. But his name's… Sirius…"

"Black," finished Ron.

Harry spat bitterly, "Black. One big family of Death Eaters, I'll bet!"

Distressed, Dobby said, "Dobby reminds Harry that if old Master Lucius is getting a trial and if Mrs Lestrange is getting a trial then why is Mr Black not getting a trial?"

Hermione said, "And he can't be that secret name listed, Harry, because that was an acquittal and Sirius Black would be walking around scot-free today."

"Dobby also thinks he knows why old Master Lucius is not helping Sirius Black get a trial. He was talking to Dobby's old Mistress when Dobby was under the couch banishing the dust. He was saying, 'If Sirius would just be dying—Dobby means to say, If Sirius would just die, I would get the rest of the Black money because of your inheritance.'"

Hermione said, "Well, that could either be 'no honour among thieves', or Lucius knows something about Sirius Black. Did he ever say anything else, Dobby?"

Dobby thought carefully. He thought he could get away with saying it without being too precise about how he learned it, and said, "Dobby remembers hearing that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did not always tell _all_ of his Death Eaters who the other Death Eaters was. But some Death Eaters was knowing more than they should be, and old Master Lucius was seeming to know a lot of names. When he was reading the _Daily Prophet _and seeing Sirius Black's name he was being quite surprised and saying, 'I did not know he served the Dark Lord.' Death Eaters is usually calling He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named the Dark Lord."

Hermione frowned. "So You-Know-Who had terrorist cells – groups of people who didn't necessarily know each other – but left weaknesses by letting some favoured subordinates have access to more information. Or maybe Mr Malfoy was just very smart and could figure out a lot of names from peoples' voices and physical appearance. But if Mr Malfoy knew a lot of the key people, then why did he not know about Mr Black?"

Dobby said, "Dobby knows that his old Mistress was unhappy to meet Bellatrix Lestrange in 1978 when she was seeing something on Mrs Lestrange's arm. Dobby thinks Mistress was not supposed to know what his old Master was knowing."

Harry held his head in his hands. "Okay, this is too much information all at once. Maybe this man betrayed my parents. Maybe he didn't. But we need to know a lot of things: First, what's this 'Secret Keeper' thing? Second, where's the trial transcript? Third, if there was no trial, how'd they know it was him? Fourth, if some of the high Death Eaters knew more than they should, why was at least one of them surprised to hear about this Sirius Black?"

Ron said, "Don't forget number five. Dobby said there's a thing on a person's arm… are you saying they have _marks_ on their arms?"

Dobby nodded. He said, "Dobby is knowing Death Eaters is having a mark on their arm looking like a skull, calling it the Dark Mark. Dobby was seeing it once when Mrs Lestrange was showing off to his old Mistress. But Dobby reminds Ron Weasley that pureblood custom is that you is not telling people to remove their shirt sleeves."

Ron said, "Bloody hell, you're right. We don't hold much to them, but Dad and Mum taught us some so we wouldn't look like idiots at Hogwarts. One thing you never do is make someone else wear short sleeves if they don't want to. Like, say you're putting on a big party and it's really fancy. Well, you can say to wear dress robes, but you can't say to wear short shirtsleeves. I bet You-Know-Who made his mark that way because of that reason. Think about it – you can go around all day with that thing on your arm and nobody'll ever know because it's rude to make people dress a certain way at gatherings and parties."

Harry snorted. "Huh. Handy to know. But if this Sirius Black – what if he didn't have one on his arm? Do these marks go away? Are they undetectable?"

"Dobby is thinking you is ought to ask him."

Harry's jaw set. "Maybe I will." He frowned and said, "All right. First things first. Let's get a letter off to the Ministry and ask for, let's see, trial transcripts for Malfoy, Nott, Black, and just for laughs, let's get Crabbe's and Goyle's."

Ron chuckled. "Let me guess – they'll be 'Did you do this in 1979?' followed by 'grunt'."

Hermione tried to stifle a giggle as she produced parchment, quill and ink. The trio set to beginning the letter, and Dobby was happy that the truth would begin to come out.

* * *

Author Notes: The plot thickens... X-D Also some quotes are extracted directly from _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_. Also I patched a continuity error from the first book, deleting a reference I made to Gryffindor having the Quidditch Cup in Harry's first year when this didn't happen.


	12. Chapter 12

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 12

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby was outside the kitchens with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

As he reached up to tickle the pear on the large painting, Hermione suddenly asked, "Dobby, can you conjugate verb tenses any better than you do?"

"Dobby is confused. What does conj-oo-gate mean?"

"It means how to say verbs properly. Like, 'I am', 'you are', and so on."

"Ah! Dobby understands. Dobby was learning English from his parents, who has learned English from their parents, and Dobby is sure this has been true for other house-elves also."

Hermione fidgeted, clasping her hands. "But that's the thing, Dobby. You've heard us speak a different form of English than you do – proper English. But your way of speaking doesn't change."

Dobby tugged at his ear a bit. "Dobby is a _house-elf_. That means Dobby is not worthy of speaking like a wizard or witch, Miss Granger."

"But that's wrong, Dobby. Don't you see? Harry already thinks of you as his friend, because you came to him to save him at the risk of your own safety and perhaps even your own life!" Hermione's frown deepened.

Harry knelt next to Dobby and said, "Hermione's right. You're my equal as far as I'm concerned. What you did for me – it doesn't matter that you needed to be bound to me so you could help me better. You're still my friend."

Dobby couldn't believe this! Tears sprung to his eyes and he wailed, "Dobby has never been so honoured as he has by the great Harry Potter!" He flung himself at Harry, embracing the boy with all his strength.

After getting his composure back, Dobby released Harry. Harry said, "Do you believe you are an equal to wizards, Dobby?"

Dobby tugged his ears and fidgeted. "Dobby is not sure, but Dobby will try to believe this."

Hermione said, "Then could you do one thing for Harry? Just one thing for now."

Dobby warily nodded, knowing that what Hermione had thought house-elves _should_ do was not necessarily what house-elves _could _do.

"Can you try saying 'you are' instead of 'you is'?"

Dobby was not quite sure how that worked, but tried it. "You is… Dobby apologises. You are saying it is like that?"

Ron clapped. "Bravo, Dobby! We'll have you doing amazing things yet, eh?"

"Dobby is now tickling the pear on the painting and showing you the kitchens."

Once inside, the children marvelled at the bustling activity of the house-elves. Wibby rushed up to them and squeaked, "You is Harry Potter! And you is his friends! Quickly, sit down, sit down!"

He ushered them to one of the long house tables that was currently empty of any place settings. Dobby knew many students and teachers had sat at those kitchen tables over the years.

Dobby could remember when he was happy to be free, and being paid a Galleon a week with one day off a month, but this paled next to his new duty to Harry Potter. He _must_ make sure Harry defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named more quickly! He _must_ make sure Severus Snape never killed the Headmaster, and so much more besides.

But perhaps he would ask Harry Potter for a wage soon, as having money could help.

The trio sat at the end of one of the benches. Ron said, "Say, do you have tea?"

Immediately six house-elves bustled together and produced a complete tea service on a large silver platter, beaming as they placed it on the table, garnering profuse thanks from Harry and Hermione in addition to Ron.

Hermione said, "Oh! Before you go, could I ask you something?"

The house-elves bowed. One said, "What does you wish to ask of us?"

"You seem to do a lot of work here. Do you like working for Headmaster Dumbledore?"

The house-elf seemed shocked that anyone would think otherwise. "The house-elves here is always having work to do, but we likes doing it! Even when the work is very hard we does not mind too much, because we is not being punished by anyone! Headmaster Dumbledore understands us, he does, and always tells us we is doing _very_ good work. He even tells us that we can be… calling him _names_, miss. But we is too proper for that. We is keeping his secrets and our silence."

Hermione seemed troubled, still. "But what about money? Or holidays?"

The house-elf's ears poked up as she squeaked loudly, "Paying? We is not needing _paying_! House-elves is not _paid_! We is serving wizards and witches and that is the way of things. Yes, we is liking kind masters and mistresses and being at Hogwarts is a good place for a house-elf but we is not getting airs, Miss. And house-elves _not working_?" The house-elf seemed too shocked to speak.

Dobby hurriedly spoke up, saying, "Dobby reminds Miss that things has been like this for _centuries_! Dobby also thinks it would be better to not upset the house-elves here as they is cooking and cleaning for you."

Hermione sighed. "I'm sorry to have bothered you all. Thank you again for the tea set."

The house-elves, visibly relieved, bowed again and rushed off.

Hermione, in a low voice, said to Dobby, "Also, could you remember to say 'they are', instead of 'they is'?"

Dobby scratched his head and said, "Dobby will try to remember. Though Dobby thinks wizard English is harder than it sounds."

Hermione smiled as she poured herself out her tea. Harry and Ron already had their cups prepared and busily enjoyed themselves. Dobby quietly told Wibby he would clear the tea things away, whereupon any strange looks he got vanished.

Harry said, "Dobby, you can have some tea if you want."

The house-elves started staring at Dobby again when they came close to the table, but because Dobby was Harry Potter's house-elf, Dobby knew they would decide it was simply Harry's way of doing things. But Harry's example would, he hoped, help prove that there was more than only one good master of house-elves.

So Dobby took the teacup offered him and took a tiny sip, standing atop the table.

/\/\/\/\

That night, the house-elves accosted Dobby, who had come to help do the laundry again.

Wibby said, "Dobby, we is having concerns about you being here, because house-elves here is serving _Hogwarts_, not only one student!"

Dobby said, "You is remembering that just as you is keeping the Headmaster's secrets and your silence, Dobby must do the same for Harry Potter. He has told Dobby that Dobby must protect him, because He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was _at Hogwarts_ just months ago!" (Dobby reminded himself to iron his ears for telling a lie about Harry's orders)

The house-elves, most of who remembered the last era of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, shivered at the thought that the man, whose Death Eaters had hurt and killed their house-elf brethren, had breached the safety of Hogwarts.

"Dobby also knows that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named would attack Harry Potter again if he could! But Dobby will be sure that does not happen if Dobby can possibly help it."

Wibby considered, and consulted with the other house-elves.

After some discussion Wibby turned back and said, "We is thinking there is no trouble with you serving Harry Potter because in serving him you is also serving Hogwarts."

Dobby said, "Dobby only asks that the house-elves of Hogwarts help Harry Potter if Dobby asks it."

Wibby nodded. "We has seen Harry Potter for ourselves and we is pleased. He is a strange master, but a _good_ one. We is being sure to tell other house-elves if they is talking to us."

Dobby, overjoyed, began doing the washing at once. Another mission accomplished!

/\/\/\/\

Harry informed Dobby that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement could not send the documents he wanted by owl, and so Dobby was dispatched to retrieve them. At the Ministry, the house-elves working there were curious about Harry Potter, and he answered their questions. Dobby hoped that they would also help Harry if he needed the Ministry elves to help him.

Dobby found himself regularly accompanying Harry, Ron and Hermione as they went over the transcripts. The Crabbe and Goyle ones proved as amusing as Ron had predicted.

Ron said on one occasion, "Here, read this._ 'Mr Goyle, tell us exactly what you did on the night of 20 August 1980.'_

_'Mr. Goyle: Uh, nothing.'_

_'Interrogator: Let the record show that the accused spent two minutes squinting closely at the questioner before he answered._'"

Harry had laughed so hard he was clutching his stomach, and Hermione was covering her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking in mirth.

On a more sober occasion, Harry read the response letter, signed by Amelia Bones:

_"Dear Mr Potter,_

_We are unable to locate any trial or arrest records for Sirius Black. This situation was not as unusual as you might think, as the Department of Magical Law Enforcement made use, several times, of section 77 subsection (a) of the Wizarding Criminal Code, still present on the law books, which allows for indefinite confinement of a criminal when a condition of a State of Emergency exists._

_Unfortunately, the cancellation of a State of Emergency does not automatically trigger release of the prisoner or prisoners incarcerated under section 77(a). While our records do not indicate a legal conviction was obtained, Mr Black's status under this section is considered equivalent to such by the Wizengamot._

_You are strongly encouraged to engage a solicitor should you wish to pursue matters further."_

Dobby said, "Dobby thinks you are ought to be using a solicitor. Dobby also remembers former Master Lucius telling of this reporter at the _Daily Prophet_ who writes very nasty stories about people. He was saying he would like to have Rita Skeeter write bad stories about Headmaster Dumbledore."

Harry frowned. "What does a reporter have to do with me getting a solicitor?"

Hermione excitedly said, "Wait! I've got it. If you push this in the public eye, you could push the Ministry for a proper trial. Don't you want to confront the man, anyway?"

Harry nodded. "He should have to tell me why he betrayed my parents, shouldn't he?"

Ron said, "S'only fair, you know. Why should he just sit there and not have to tell you what he did, Harry?"

Harry smacked the table. "It's settled. Dobby, check with Hermione to make sure the solicitor I talk to isn't one who knows the Malfoys. Ron, let's write that letter to the solicitor and see if we can get this Rita Skeeter in on the story somehow."

"Dobby will do this. Dobby also reminds you that you are ought to be reading the back numbers of the _Daily Prophet_."

Ron replied, "Good idea. I've heard Mum go on about her sometimes when she writes stuff about the Ministry. She's always worried a bad article will get written about Dad."

"So we can see what this woman's style is like, then," said Harry.

Hermione and Dobby went into a corner of the Room of Requirement, where she concentrated on a directory of businesses in magical Britain, and to her pleasure, the book materialised. She began reading, checking each name with Dobby, who would nod or shake his head at the name.

Before long, Hermione had a list of solicitors in hand, and Harry and Ron had drafted a letter. After discussion and debate, the final version went off to the law firm of Altress and Bennett, specialists in both civil lawsuits and criminal law cases.

As Dobby, Harry, Ron and Hermione watched Hedwig fly away from the Owlery, Hermione said, "All we can do now is wait. Who wants to help revise for Defence?"

Ron said, "With purple hearts around all your scheduling for _that_, right?"

As Dobby waved to Harry and began vanishing the owl droppings, he heard Hermione huffing, "_Ronald!_ They're just decorative, honestly."

Harry's chuckle at that echoed down the hallway as the trio went back to Hogwarts, leaving Dobby to clean Hedwig's nest.

* * *

Author Notes: Thanks go to **canoncansodoff** for the notion of improving Dobby's grammar. :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 13

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

One Friday evening, Dobby was called urgently by Harry.

Dobby popped into existence in the Come and Go Room, noticing that Harry was holding a letter, apparently having just taken it back from Ron and Hermione. The room was different this time, being organised into a spellbook reference section, a spell target section, and a small duelling practice section.

The trio were seated on chairs in the spellbook reference section. Dobby moved to stand near Harry, who said, "Hullo. I'm going to read this letter out loud to you, okay?"

Dobby nodded, pleased to be part of Harry's plans.

"_Dear Mr Potter,_

_Your letter rather piqued our curiosity regarding the old case of Sirius Black, who, we understand from the back numbers of the _Daily Prophet_, was named your godfather by James Potter._

_We would like to send a solicitor to meet you personally, but as you are a Hogwarts student without Hogsmeade visitation privileges (you indicated you are a second-year student presently) we would need to put our request through Headmaster Dumbledore._

_This letter is to inform you that we will be initiating this request tomorrow. If you have any objections please send a reply owl today; otherwise you may expect to meet with your Headmaster regarding this request._

_The initial consultation will be at no charge to you, and you are free to have an adult with you to protect your interests; in fact, we would prefer that you do this so as to avoid the appearance of coercion or impropriety._

_Sincerely,  
Rowan Altress_

_Altress and Bennett,  
Barristers and Solicitors"_

Harry put the letter down and said, "Hermione has already explained that the reason they want me to have an adult there is because otherwise it could look like they're trying to use me for their own agenda."

Dobby nodded.

"What we're having trouble with is deciding who should be with me when I go to meet whoever comes up to Hogwarts."

Dobby was surprised. "Dobby is not sure who you are wanting to have with you. Is you—"

Hermione gently butted in, saying, "Dobby, you say 'are you', not 'is you'."

"Ah. Dobby thinks he understands. Are you not wanting Professor McGonagall or Headmaster Dumbledore to be with you?"

Harry sighed and shrugged.

Ron said, "Well, McGonagall didn't exactly take us seriously when we said someone was after the Philosopher's Stone, you know. Even if we're just kids, you'd think she'd have done more than just brush us off. I mean, come on – she threatened to take points off us just for hanging about!"

Harry said, "And Dumbledore – well, before this summer I'd have gone with him, but he said some things that make me wonder."

Hermione frowned. "What's this all about, Harry?" she asked.

Harry closed his eyes and sat back in his chair. He ran his hand through his hair, seeming to almost unconsciously pat it down over his scar.

Ron's face went red as he said, "Can you believe the nerve, Hermione? When Dumbledore saw Harry at our place he said Harry should go back to his relatives for another week and tried to make excuses for them! Harry, you should tell her, you know, about where your Hogwarts letter came."

Harry grimaced. As though the words had trouble coming out, he slowly said, "It was—was the Cupboard Under the Stairs."

Hermione gasped. "Are you _serious_? That's _barbaric_, making a child live in a storage cupboard! And you were eleven, for goodness sake. That solicitor should be helping you get criminal charges laid against your relatives, Harry!"

"And where would I go, Hermione?" said Harry angrily. "Mr Weasley said the Weasleys would take me in, but I wouldn't want to impose on them if I don't have to. I don't even know what could happen if I have nobody to be my official guardian. What if the Weasleys can't do it?"

Before Ron could dispute the subject, Harry said, "Ron, what about all the people Fred and George said don't like your Dad because he's confiscated illegal Muggle artefacts from them before? They wouldn't want to see him take me in, would they?"

Harry sighed. "As much as I hate to say it, the Dursleys are the only place where I know I have a place to live in the summer."

Dobby cried, "Dobby will protect you anywhere, Harry! You are just saying the word, and Dobby will cook, clean and make sure no-one will be harming you."

The room fell silent as all four beings within it thought about what had transpired.

Ron fidgeted as he rubbed the worn edge of his robe, while Hermione anxiously turned a quill over and over in her hands. Harry looked down at his hands clasped in his lap, while Dobby tried to resist the urge to clean the room for something to do.

Finally, Harry said, "Let's forget it for now. The Headmaster will probably ask me to come see him tomorrow. Meantime, let's do some more spell practice. Dobby, you'll probably find this kind of boring so if you want to do something else, feel free."

"Dobby understands. Dobby will wash the dishes." His ears drooped. "But Dobby wishes Harry would feel better, and Dobby is sad that Harry is not having a good day."

He briefly embraced Harry's legs, then popped away to the Malfoy house, resolving to shut his ears in the door for telling a lie to Harry, since he was going to do something else first.

At the manor, he overheard Blinky saying to Toppy, "Mistress was _most_ annoyed when she was saying she is thinking there is a little stinksap on the bed. Master saw that the window was left open and he was thinking a tree growing outside must be having some stinksap in it. He is asking a wizard to come and move the tree."

Dobby grinned as he popped back to Hogwarts just outside the kitchen door. After he tickled the pear to enter, he briefly slammed his ear in the door and then entered to do the dishwashing.

/\/\/\/\

As predicted, the Headmaster notified Harry, who called Dobby to him in a small alcove off one of the hallways.

"Dobby, can you hide somewhere and watch what happens? I can't have Ron and Hermione with me but I'd be happier knowing you're there. Go to the Headmaster's office, but don't let anyone see you. Okay?"

Dobby nodded excitedly, happy to help Harry. He popped straightaway to the roof of the Headmaster's office, hidden away from the paintings. Even Fawkes the phoenix didn't seem to know Dobby had secreted himself in the room. Dumbledore himself was quietly humming away as he busied himself with the contents of the papers he was going through and making notes upon.

After some time, Dobby heard a tentative knock on the door, causing Dumbledore to go to it and usher Harry to a seat in front of his desk. Harry was wide-eyed, looking at the paintings and Fawkes.

Dumbledore noticed this and said, "Ah. Everybody quite likes Fawkes. A charming phoenix, isn't he?"

Harry gasped, "A _phoenix_, sir?"

"As I am sure you have had ample reason to discover, many things in the Muggle world thought to be myths are, in fact, real in the magical world." Dumbledore gently brushed Fawkes's feathers, then sat opposite from Harry, behind the desk.

Dumbledore searched for a particular parchment, extracted it from his pile of documents, and said, "Now, Harry, I have called you in here because I have been requested by a man named Rowan Altress to permit him to meet you regarding the matter of Sirius Black. Am I correct?"

Harry nodded.

"Good." Dumbledore sighed. "I really wish you had discovered this later in your life, but I am assuming you indulged your curiosity after discovering that the Malfoys kept and mistreated their house-elves, and you wished to learn more about them?"

Harry said, "Er, well, yes." He seemed uncertain as to what to say next.

Dumbledore replied, "Well, it would have been only a matter of time before you discovered that Sirius Black is, in fact, your godfather and that status has never changed. Harry, I want you to know how deeply I regret that your godfather had betrayed your parents' secret to Voldemort."

Dobby thought Harry was less angry than he ought to have been upon hearing from the Headmaster's own words that Sirius Black was supposed to have been the Secret Keeper for the Potters.

Harry diffidently replied, "Sir, I've come to understand there are… well, many things I need to learn about. I want to meet this Sirius Black and have him tell me, in front of me, that he was serving Voldemort. I want to know if this man helped kill my parents."

The Headmaster seemed somewhat concerned as he said, "But Harry, as far as we know, there really is no doubt. James Potter – your father – told me himself that he and your mother had chosen Sirius Black as their Secret Keeper."

"Sir, there was no trial. I have a letter from Mrs Bones who runs the Department of Magical Law Enforcement that he was thrown in Azkaban with this, um, Section 77 thing."

"Ah, yes. Section 77. I have never agreed with the use of arbitrary imprisonment, but to change that law would require more votes on the Wizengamot than I believe can be mustered." Dumbledore reached for a sherbet lemon and began crunching on it as he continued speaking. "Now permit me to explain what a Secret Keeper is. There is a charm called the _Fidelius _Charm. It is designed so that anything you wish to protect, be it a location of a particular object, building, or even the location of a group of people, can be encased in the mind of one person, deemed the Secret Keeper.

"Let me give you a simple example. Suppose that I wish to hide Fawkes's exact location because a person is stealing phoenixes and I have secreted him at my house. I would cast the _Fidelius_, entrusting Fawkes's location to someone I trust. Then, unless that person says or writes something specific to someone else, such as 'Albus Dumbledore's phoenix is at such-and-such an address', no-one at all will know where Fawkes is. The beauty of this charm is that only the Secret Keeper may divulge a secret. Anyone else to whom the secret is told can say nothing about it except to someone else who also knows the secret.

"I, myself, would be unable to tell anyone where Fawkes was hiding in the example I have just given you. This is why it is so shocking and yet so obvious that Mr Black must have given up your family's secret to Lord Voldemort."

Harry scowled. "_Lord_ Voldemort?"

"Forgive me. I forget myself sometimes. Voldemort had a habit of insisting that he be referred to in regal terms – 'Dark Lord', 'Lord Voldemort', and so forth. Even those of us who tend to refer to him by his actual chosen name occasionally use other appellations."

"Well, he's no Lord to me," declared Harry.

Dumbledore's voice took on a warmer timbre. "A very wise statement, Harry. And now, to return to the contents of this letter, it also states that an adult may accompany you if you wish. Would you prefer myself, Professor McGonagall, or perhaps another professor entirely?"

Harry thought for a few moments, then said, "I want to see if I can confront this Sirius Black person, which is why I want to talk to this solicitor. Sir, I would like to ask for, er, Professor Flitwick."

"Professor Flitwick?" said Dumbledore in some surprise. "Well, I suppose he is not a bad choice at all. I will authorise this visit and you, Mr Altress and Professor Flitwick may use an empty room here at Hogwarts. Incidentally, I believe Professor Flitwick knew your mother somewhat."

Harry's eyes widened momentarily. He replied, "Sir, I've been wondering just now – why don't more of the professors here mention my parents if they went here?"

"An entirely reasonable request. But you must understand, Harry, that by and large we are focussed on your generation, not the generations prior to yours. Also, it would be somewhat inappropriate for a Hogwarts teacher to seek out a student for the specific intention of discussing his or her parents with that student. It falls to you to seek the initiative in that regard.

"But please do not take up too much of the professors' time, Harry. They are busy people."

"I'll try not to. How will I meet the solicitor?"

"I will write back to him requesting that he meet you and Professor Flitwick at the front entrance to Hogwarts tomorrow – which, though a Sunday, will probably not be of issue to the solicitor given your status in the wizarding world. People will extend you certain courtesies and privileges denied others, because you are the Boy Who Lived."

Harry scowled and fidgeted in his chair. "I'd give it all back if it meant I didn't have to live at the Dursleys. What are you doing about them, sir? You _did_ promise Mr Weasley."

"I did. I have to consider the matter carefully, Harry. There are curses which, were I disposed to use them, would solve the matter for you, but they are quite illegal."

"You mean the Imperius Curse, sir?"

The Headmaster stiffened. "How on earth did you ever hear about that?" asked Dumbledore sharply.

Harry seemed a bit baffled at the reaction as he said, "Well, Ron, sir. He told me his Dad had complained about Death Eaters lying about it."

Dumbledore relaxed. "Yes, it is true that some of those who followed Voldemort falsely claimed they were under its influence. It is disheartening that you seem to feel you must learn about what happened before you were even born. Let the past be the past, Harry."

Harry shook his head. "Sir, I don't think it works like that. Not if you have told me Voldemort isn't dead."

"I have indeed said this. But please, Harry, try to enjoy your time here at Hogwarts. Now, as to the Imperius Curse, it is indeed a most illegal curse and while it would solve your problem very handily, it has deleterious effects on the caster and the victim. So I will obviously not use it."

The Headmaster fiddled with a quill, then put it in an ink pot as he clasped his hands, resting them on the desk. "I suppose it will not come as much of a surprise to tell you that I have occasionally corresponded with your aunt Petunia. To take you back to a time when she and her sister – your mother, that is – were but children, she wrote me a heartfelt letter wishing to join her sister at Hogwarts. I had to regretfully decline it as she is, unfortunately, not magical. I fear I may have unwittingly aided her resentment of her sister, as your abominable treatment at her hands attests.

"I thus owe you a very great apology for causing you to be placed with your relatives. I will make no excuse for failing to hold them accountable for your treatment and have rectified that at once. You have, I presume, heard of a Howler?"

Harry scratched his head. "No, at least, I don't think I've heard one yet."

Dumbledore chuckled. "Your friends, Fred and George Weasley, must have a rare talent for escaping with their Howlers, then, before they make themselves known. A Howler is a letter which speaks – or rather, yells – in a loud voice and then rather colourfully explodes afterwards."

Harry grinned. "Sounds brilliant!"

"Ah, but wait until you are the recipient of one," said Dumbledore in an amused tone. "In any case, my first step was to send such a letter to your Aunt, explaining in no uncertain terms that how you have been treated is unacceptable. Her fear and resentment of magic, as unfortunate and as distressing as that is, can be used to our advantage. I personally regret having to approach someone in that manner rather than as partners in a mutually beneficial understanding, but I do not think your aunt would appreciate it."

Harry sourly replied, "Hardly. What will you do if things don't get better next summer? And sir, _why_ do I need to stay there? I wouldn't want the Weasleys to put themselves to too much trouble over me, but I'd love to stay at Ron's instead of at my aunt and uncle's."

Dumbledore tapped the desk and said, "I will divulge a secret to you, one I would rather not have done, but I believe it is necessary. You remember Mrs Figg?"

"Yes. She'd have me over occasionally when Uncle Vernon didn't want to be bothered with me."

"She is, in fact, a Squib." At Harry's confused expression, Dumbledore went on. "A Squib, Harry, is a child of magical parents who does not exhibit sufficient magic to be able to use a wand. Nevertheless Squibs can interact with the magical world and are not registered as fully-magical citizens in the Ministry of Magic's register. This discriminatory stance is abhorrent, but in Mrs Figg's particular case it meant I could situate someone to watch over you."

Harry laughed bitterly. "She never seemed to really like having me over."

"Again, I have done you wrong, Harry and for that I apologise. Mrs Figg said to me some years ago that she was concerned about showing you too much kindness in case your relatives were to see this and prevent you from visiting her. I should have realised, at the time, that your relatives seem to take a unique delight in depriving you of any happiness, even if the methods they use would be counterproductive for them in the extreme.

"Rest assured, Harry, that will change. Mrs Figg will make her presence more visible and will endeavour to help you maintain contact with your friends and even with myself, should you wish it. I have informed your aunt Petunia of this fact and if any harm should come to Mrs Figg as a result, or if you are prevented from seeing Mrs Figg when you wish, I will be stepping in personally."

Harry said, "Thank you, sir, though I won't hold out much hope until I see it. But I _can _visit Ron in the summer, can't I?"

"I see no reason why you would not be able to take short visits. There is a method of travelling called the Floo—yes, Harry?"

Harry had grimaced upon hearing the word. "Just a bad experience with it I had once."

"Yes, the Floo is rather temperamental. In any case, Mrs Figg is connected to the Floo network and after I take a few security precautions, you will be able to visit Mr Weasley freely.

"Now, as to why you must stay at the Dursleys specifically? Unfortunately, Harry, the law is not something I can circumvent at will. And legally, the only option I could take was to place you with your relatives. That being the case, to remove you from them would take considerable time, effort, and, unfortunately, publicity."

Harry thought that over for some time, and finally sighed loudly. "I wish I could stay at Ron's all the time, but I guess what you've told me is better than nothing."

"If it is any consolation, Harry, we all cannot always get our way in everything. But where we can, it is possible to make adjustments that can be satisfactory. I will be in communication with your family over your year in school, and will make the final arrangements near the end of your school year, to ensure their behavior changes when you return for the summer."

Harry nodded. "Okay. And when do I meet Professor Flitwick tomorrow?"

"It will probably be convenient to see him just after breakfast tomorrow. I will inform him of this matter at the same time as I reply to your solicitor." Dumbledore said in a troubled voice, "Harry… please try not to be too upset when you meet Mr Black, if you are permitted to visit him at Azkaban. Sometimes we must accept that our closest friends can fail us."

Dobby wondered why the Headmaster seemed unusually upset, and tried to remember if he had heard anything about the Headmaster that would explain this.

Harry's voice was firm. "I just want him to tell me to my face why he betrayed my parents, sir."

"An admirable sentiment. But as I said before, Harry, sometimes the past should remain in the past. Is there anything else that you wish to tell me?"

"No, sir."

Dumbledore stood up and silently ushered Harry to the door, closing it as Harry descended the stairs out of the Headmaster's office.

Dobby had always thought that Headmaster Dumbledore was just as great and wonderful as Harry Potter, and even in his second life, knowing that Dumbledore had put Harry with his relatives, what he had said and done only made Dobby's heart swell all the more at the thought that he had worked for such a great and kind Headmaster!

* * *

Author Notes: And there you have it. :-)


	14. Chapter 14

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 14

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby was called to bring a tea service for the solicitor and Professor Flitwick, plus Harry, Ron and Hermione. They were in an unused classroom. The broken desks had been removed and a low round conference table had been put in, along with some plush chairs from storage.

As Dobby set out the tea things, Harry was saying, "Ron and Hermione have been helping me through all this and it wouldn't be fair to exclude them. Hopefully you don't mind this, Mr Altress."

Dobby interjected, "Dobby has finished with the tea setting. Are you all wanting anything else?"

Amid the murmurs of "No, thanks," Dobby looked at Rowan Altress. Dobby was not always good with human ages but he thought the man was in his early sixties. His hair was still black, but flecked with grey. He had a well-trimmed beard and wore robes appropriate for a business meeting. This Dobby was sure of, having seen Lucius Malfoy wear similar robes many times when meeting the Minister for Magic.

Harry said, "Thanks again, Dobby. Can you go back to doing what you were working on at the Headmaster's?"

Dobby nodded and bowed, popping away to his bedroom to work out Harry's strange phrasing. Dobby assigned himself tasks at Hogwarts because Harry often gave no orders, but the Headmaster… wait! Surely Harry could not mean he was to pop up to the rafters and _spy_ on them?

Dobby silently popped up near the roof of the classroom, and carefully peeked over the edge of the wide wooden beam that ran high up near the roof. Luckily, the humans below were still preoccupied with putting the cream and sugar in their tea.

Mr Altress said, "I was not aware you knew the duties of house-elves, Mr Potter."

Harry diffidently replied, "Oh, that was a one-off. I spoke with Dobby down in the kitchens when I asked to speak to a house-elf, and he said he could bring a tea set but that he had to do a job for the Headmaster right after."

Altress seemed to accept that, and failed to notice the slight grins Harry, Ron and Hermione sent one another. Flitwick said, "Mr Potter, Mr Altress, before we begin I wish to be sure that neither of you has any issue with my being present as the adult necessary to protect Harry's interests. I realise this may seem redundant and unimportant, but as often happens with famous people, those who do not take every precaution possible sometimes get into sticky situations."

Harry said, "Well, as far as I'm concerned it's no trouble at all to have you, Professor."

Mr Altress said, "Likewise. However Professor Flitwick raises a good point. I remember the time Celestina Warbeck – if you don't know who she is, she's a famous singer – forgot to double-check her contract and was shorted a few thousand Galleons because she was in a hurry and didn't have her usual agent with her."

Ron whistled. "Blimey!"

"Yes, it made quite a mess in the _Daily Prophet_ for a while. It involved one of the stations that broadcasts over the Wizarding Wireless, so we all got – pardon the pun – an earful about it."

Hermione smiled and giggled briefly.

Altress put his cup down on the table, put his hands on his knees and said, "Well, to business, shall we?"

Everybody nodded.

"All right, then, Mr Potter – or may I call you Harry?"

Harry said, "Harry's fine."

"Good. And you may call me Rowan. In order to keep a record of this meeting, I'd like to have notes taken for this purpose."

He opened his valise and produced some sheets of parchment along with a Dictating Quill. Harry and Hermione seemed fascinated by the way the quill stood up all by itself and began writing in neat cursive strokes as the solicitor spoke.

"Date: September 27 1992. I, Rowan Altress, am currently meeting with Harry Potter, a prospective client and a second-year student at Hogwarts. With him are Professor Filius Flitwick from Hogwarts, and Harry Potter's friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, both second-year students at Hogwarts as well. This is an initial consultation at no charge to Mr Potter.

"Now, Harry, I know we have corresponded regarding the matter of Sirius Black, but I would like to clarify exactly what you wish to do here."

Harry replied, outlining all the research that the Trio had done. Dobby noticed happily that Harry carefully avoided mentioning Dobby's role in any of it. Being an unusual house-elf, it would just not do to attract attention to himself.

Harry finished, saying, "There's enough confusion, I think, that I want to find out – I want to _see_ for myself the man who betrayed my parents. And if he did, good riddance! But if he didn't, then who did?"

Dobby tried to remember if Ron had been bringing Scabbers the rat to any of his meetings, and couldn't recall. He suspected that Ron, helping Harry with his projects and magic training, had taken to leaving the animal to scrouge around Gryffindor Tower.

Altress nodded. "What you say makes sense, Harry. I take it, then, you'd like to visit Azkaban to see Mr Black? I should warn you it is not very pleasant, not at all. We might have to petition to have Mr Black brought to a secure Ministry cell to avoid the possibility of the Dementors harming you."

"Do you think it will be hard to accomplish this?" asked Hermione.

The solicitor's eyebrows went up in surprise. "No, at least I don't anticipate it. It's just that it's so rare for people to _want_ to visit a prisoner at Azkaban. I could probably count them on one hand; there was Narcissa Malfoy who caused a minor stir visiting Bellatrix Lestrange back in, oh, 1986 or so? And there was that sad story of Bartemius Crouch visiting his son a week before the boy died. His wife went soon after, apparently.

"So I think the Ministry will permit the request; it just might draw some attention which could upset Cornelius Fudge."

Ron scowled, and Altress noticed this. "Something wrong, Ronald?"

"I won't get in trouble for saying this, will I?" wondered Ron.

"No, you won't. I should have explained this at the beginning and I apologise. The nature of this conversation is called privileged communication. If Harry here hires me as his solicitor, then this, and any future meetings between me and him, or me and him plus anyone he brings into his confidence, regardless of the subject of discussion, are forbidden from being repeated by me to anyone else. In fact, if I were ever to repeat the details of this conversation without Harry's approval, I would lose my job and be forbidden to be a solicitor ever again. The Wizengamot takes such matters very seriously."

Ron said, "It's just that I don't like Fudge. My dad sometimes complains about him."

Altress chuckled. "Between you and me, I won't disagree. But nonetheless, Harry, do you wish to engage my services, and if so, for what length of time?"

Harry nodded, and Hermione said quickly, "What are your rates?"

"Excellent question. I charge ten Galleons an hour, or I can be hired for a fixed retainer of five hundred Galleons. If you wish to engage me for the limited duration of preparing a petition to be permitted to visit Mr Black, then I suspect it wouldn't cost more than thirty Galleons. Most of the three-hour period is just getting the paperwork stamped by the appropriate Ministry officials."

Harry nodded decisively. "All right. Thirty Galleons it is. How can I pay you?"

Fitwick said, "If I may reply, as I have spent money in several different ways over the course of my lifetime, you can pay in actual coins, or if you have your Gringotts vault key with you, you can impress your key in the appropriate spot on a document charmed to authorise a one-time transfer of funds. Finally, if you have vault drafts instead – which, as I understand them, work similarly to Muggle cheques – you could fill one out and give it to Rowan, here."

Harry rummaged in his pockets, muttering, "Hermione _would_ remind me to bring my key, just in case."

That provoked a round of chuckles, along with a blush appearing on Hermione's cheeks, as Harry produced his Gringotts key.

Altress swiftly produced some documents from his valise along with a quill. He said, "Some legal firms use Blood Quills, but I prefer not to."

Dobby's momentary panic subsided as he tried not to give in to the urge to reveal himself. He knew, of course, that Rowan Altress was not Dolores Umbridge, but after hearing so many times about how Professor Umbridge had so horribly forced the great Harry Potter to write with such a quill, he could not help but associate Blood Quills with danger.

Altress was still speaking. "Such Quills are strictly regulated by the Ministry and must only be used under closely specified conditions. My legal firm, as well as others, have worked out an alternate method of authenticating signatures on documents. What you will do, Harry, is sign this standard contract which states that you are engaging my services. Then you can fill out a Funds Transfer form onto which you will impress your key, and then I can get started. All right?"

Harry seemed a bit surprised, but nodded quickly.

Altress signed the contract first, then produced his wand and touched it carefully to a small circle to the left of the signature line. The contract glowed briefly, then returned to normal.

Harry, in turn, signed and touched his wand to the contract, which glowed again.

Altress said, "Good. What we have just done is to place our magical signatures on this document and it is now a valid contract, because magical signature forgery is exceedingly hard to do. The next step will be to authorise a funds transfer. Now, Harry, if you haven't checked your balance at Gringotts you ought to do it after you do this, so you don't suddenly find that thirty Galleons represented all you have."

The Funds Transfer paper, floridly labelled as such, was quickly filled in for thirty Galleons, after which Harry added his signature and key impression.

The parchment glowed, and Dobby could see some writing filling in blank spots on the document. Ron blurted, "Cool!"

Altress grinned. "It's rare I have to use these, so it's always fun to see self-filling documents. I see from the writing here that the transfer was successful, so that's settled. Oh, almost forgot your copy. _Geminio._"

A twin of the document appeared out of the air, causing Hermione's eyes to go wide. Harry took the duplicated document out of Altress's hand and passed it to her so she could study it.

"So, to wrap this meeting up, I will prepare the petition on your behalf, send it in to the Ministry, and hopefully it will move smoothly from there. If you should require my services again, don't hesitate to owl me."

Harry said, "Thank you very much, Rowan."

"My pleasure." With that, Altress picked up the Dictating Quill, twisted the nub, then put it back in his valise. He duplicated the records of the meeting for Harry, then put the meeting record in his valise as well.

Harry called, "Dobby!"

Dobby instantly popped next to the conference table, his ears up as he said, "Does you wish any more tea, or crumpets, or—"

Flitwick said, "No thank you, but I believe Mr Potter would like the tea service to be cleaned away."

Dobby nodded, his ears flapping. "Dobby will clean this room, sirs and madam."

Dobby picked up all the cups and saucers as the meeting broke up. Just as he was about to pop back to the kitchens, Harry, having stopped to tie his shoe and urging the others on their way, quickly turned his head to wink at Dobby and give him a thumbs up.

Happy to know he had been of service, Dobby popped away to return the tea tray and its contents to the kitchens.

* * *

Author Notes: Dun-dun-dun. Sirius Black on the horizon! :)


	15. Chapter 15

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 15

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Harry called Dobby into the Room of Requirement on Friday night. Like before, the room looked as it had when Hermione had first imagined needing a private room to discuss things.

He announced to Dobby, Ron and Hermione that the solicitor, Rowan Altress, had convinced the Ministry to bring Sirius Black to a holding cell at the Ministry to avoid any possible Dementor-related side effects. Dobby, for his part, was relieved that his master would not have to face the horrible creatures.

Ron said, "Harry, you should take Dobby with you, just in case, you know?"

Hermione nodded. "I don't think this Mr Black would try to hurt you if he's under heavy guard, but just in case?"

"Okay. I'll take Dobby with me, then," replied Harry as he nodded. He turned to Dobby and said, "Would you come with me to the Ministry and be ready to take me out of there if there's a problem?"

Dobby nodded eagerly. "Dobby will guard you, Harry Potter. Dobby will take you immediately to Hogsmeade if there is danger!"

"Good." Harry looked at the letter again and said, "Mr. Altress – no, Rowan – said here he's already written to Dumbledore saying that the Ministry will have Sirius Black in a holding cell by tomorrow. I hope everything goes all right."

"I wish we could go with you, Harry," said Hermione with a frown.

"Me too, mate," chimed in Ron. "But I don't think they'd let us. They probably wouldn't even think twice about you bringing a house-elf, though; Dad says visitors to the Ministry sometimes bring their house-elves and nobody minds."

Hermione agitatedly said, "Why should they be ignored like that? Even if house-elves here are well-treated, and I doubt anyone would dream of hurting a house-elf in public, we already know what some 'masters' do in their own homes! How many times did you have to iron your hands, or other things like that, Dobby?"

"Dobby isn't sure. Dobby knows old Master Lucius ordered him to do it many times," replied the house-elf.

"You see? _You see?_" Hermione gestured at Dobby. "How badly do they have to be mistreated before someone finally gets the nerve to _do_ something about it?"

Harry said, "But Hermione, what _can_ we do? We're just three students at Hogwarts."

Ron laughed. "Just three students, Harry? Come on, mate. We've smuggled around dragons, helped keep You-Know-Who from getting the Philosopher's Stone, and _you_ are Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived. Trust me, mate, I think if you help Hermione, people will listen. My sister Ginny used to dream of the day she'd meet you, you know."

Harry looked a little stunned at that, and Hermione's eyebrows went up. "How many more people are there like that who'd hang off Harry's word, I wonder?"

Harry shrugged and seemed a bit uncomfortable.

Dobby said, "Dobby thinks you should prepare for Sirius Black first."

Harry sighed. "You're right. You know, I was looking through those pictures Hagrid gave me earlier this year. There's a photograph of four people – one of them's my dad, and after I compared it to the _Daily Prophet_ article pictures I found out who Pettigrew was, and the worst part is, the guy standing right next to my dad in that old picture from Hagrid – that's Sirius Black!" Harry shook his fist and growled (though Dobby thought a twelve-year-old couldn't do that very well), "How could they be best friends like that? It'd be like betraying _you,_ Ron or _you_, Hermione. I'd _never _do that! Ever!"

Ron got off his chair and came around to Harry, then put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Thanks. That means a lot, you know. Maybe... maybe you'll find out why when you meet him tomorrow."

Hermione wordlessly came around to Harry's other side and patted Harry's shoulder. Harry nodded at her and at Ron and said, "I'll tell you all about it when I get back."

/\/\/\/\

Harry met Rowan Altress at the doors to Hogwarts on Saturday morning. The solicitor seemed surprised, but said nothing as Dobby was told to meet Harry at Hogsmeade for further instructions.

Dobby, meanwhile, went to straighten up his elf quarters, ensuring the container of stinksap-laced powder was securely covered. He had found out that the odor did, indeed, disappear if the lid was left off.

Harry's call summoned him, and he appeared at the Hogsmeade train station next to Harry and Rowan. Harry instructed, "Dobby, Rowan will be, he says, taking me to the Ministry by side-along Apparation. Meet me there, okay?"

At the solicitor's raised eyebrows, Harry seemed to decide something. He said, "Rowan, this part is covered under the privileged communication thing you mentioned, okay?"

The man nodded and said, "I imagine that Dobby here is actually your personal house-elf, and not a school elf?"

Harry nodded, though he seemed taken aback at how quick the man had been to guess the truth. "Please don't tell anyone; Dobby sort of works for Hogwarts, too, but I want him near me because he helped warn me about something dangerous over the summer."

Dobby, abashed, said, "Dobby thinks that Harry Potter is praising Dobby too much."

Harry chuckled. "Well, you did a good job, Dobby. I don't know how long it'd have taken to find out what was going on if you hadn't been able to warn me."

Rowan said, "Is this something pertaining to Sirius Black?"

Harry shook his head. "No. Dumbledore knows all about it and he has it under control. Can we go?"

"Certainly. If you'll hold my arm?"

Harry did so, and the pair Disapparated with a sharp _crack_. Dobby waited to sense where Harry had ended up; he realised they were in the Ministry Atrium, so he popped over to accompany the pair. Trailing behind Harry, he followed them to the lift, which moved down one floor, announcing, "Office of the Minister for Magic".

Dobby could see that Harry was enthralled by the bustle of activity and the notes that flew in and out of the lift chamber. He remembered several visits here with former Master Lucius, who had often met with Minister Fudge, as well as more infrequently with Minister Bagnold.

The next floor down the voice announced, "Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

Rowan said, "That's our floor. Let's go, Harry."

While Harry had kept his hair over his scar, the announcement of his first name caused the man entering the lift to pause for a moment, then turn back and enter it.

Rowan whispered, "We'll go to the Auror Office. That's where the holding cells are."

Harry nodded. He seemed a bit nervous. Luckily (as Dobby thought, anyway), they met with Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt at the man's cubicle. Dobby remembered from his previous life that Harry had spoken favourably of the man.

The man's bass voice seemed to calm Harry as he said, "Hello, Mr Altress and Mr Potter."

Shacklebolt conjured up a couple of chairs and sat in his own near his desk. "Now, you're here to meet with Sirius Black, as I understand it. As a person materially affected by a crime committed by him, you've gained quite a bit of sympathy for your desire to confront him, Mr Potter. We'll move to the secure holding cells once I receive notification that Mr Black has been transferred safely from Azkaban."

Dobby, standing unobtrusively near Harry, noticed that his master seemed a bit agitated. He whispered, "Dobby wonders if you requires anything, Harry Potter."

Harry shook his head as Shacklebolt and Altress began making small talk about the latest scandal to erupt in the news; apparently one of the Chasers for the Chudley Cannons had been caught trying to brew an undetectable performance-enhancement potion. Altress joked, "They might as well allow it; the Cannons might actually move off the bottom of the league for once."

Shacklebolt chuckled, then said, "Then all the other teams would want to be allowed to use them, too, and the Cannons would go right back to the bottom again! Poor sods just can't win."

A sleek airplane-note whizzed to a halt in front of Shacklebolt's face. He plucked it out of the air and read it quickly, then stood. "Let's go. Mr Black has been placed in a secure holding facility."

The group of humans plus Dobby walked out of the massive cubicle network and began passing by several reinforced doors. At the end of one hallway, they stopped. Shacklebolt waved his wand over the door, then placed his hand on the square beside it. A white glow flashed over him, and Dobby heard a _click_ from the door itself.

"Now, Mr Altress, Mr Potter and – who's the house-elf?"

Dobby said, "Dobby is accompanying Master Altress and Master Potter, sir."

"Dobby, then," said Shacklebolt. "Now, I need to emphasise that we have security procedures in place for your protection, so please follow my instructions. I'll take you to a table. Half of the table is on one side of a magical barrier, and the other half is on the other side. You can see, hear and talk to Mr Black, but he will not be able to touch you or attack you as the barrier will repel him. For your own safety stay in your chairs, don't try to move the table, and don't interfere with me or the other Aurors if we need to subdue Mr Black. All right?"

Harry nodded, as did Dobby. Rowan seemed to have heard this before, as he was calmly regarding the door.

With that, they entered the room, and Dobby got his first look at Harry Potter's godfather as they made their way to the square table which was perhaps four feet by four feet. Sirius Black sat opposite the two chairs set out for Harry and Rowan, with two Aurors flanking him. Shacklebolt, in his turn, stood a few paces away from the table on their side.

Black's discomfort and dishevelment made Dobby want to run a hot bath for Mr Black and destroy the ragged clothes, but he knew his instincts as a house-elf would be _most_ inconvenient for everyone, so he simply stood next to Harry's chair, anxiously hoping that Harry Potter would know that Sirius Black was innocent.

Sirius's face lost its stony impassiveness as he focussed on Harry. He spoke with a harsh rasp, as one unused to speaking for several years might do. "Harry. You – you're _here_. My God, I never—" Sirius couldn't continue, apparently overwhelmed at his good fortune to be away from Azkaban for a little while, and seeing his godson again.

Harry's brow furrowed. He seemed to be unable to decide what to say. He looked at Altress, who smoothly said, "Hello, Mr Black. I am Harry's solicitor, Rowan Altress. I don't suppose you might care to tell us why you betrayed Harry's parents?"

Sirius Black's look of outrage seemed to be completely genuine as he sputtered, "I _didn't_! I bloody well didn't!" But then he looked at Harry again, and as suddenly as the man's spirit had seemed to revive at the accusation, it seemed to leave him as he muttered, "I as good as killed them, Harry. I'm sorry."

Dobby despaired of being able to help. A house-elf speaking out of turn would be too noticeable, and he had no idea how to help Sirius Black become free without producing Peter Pettigrew.

Luckily. Harry seemed willing to keep talking as he said slowly, "I don't understand. How can you not have betrayed my parents and still have killed them?"

Sirius's expression twisted in pain as he remembered. "It can't be any worse, whatever I tell you; I'll go back to Azkaban anyhow." He sighed, gathering his strength to talk some more. "Look… Harry… I thought I was being so clever. Your father and I, we had two more friends. One's a man called Remus Lupin, and the other – well, if he were alive I wouldn't lift a finger to save him. But I'm sure he's dead. Anyway, this man – that was Peter Pettigrew. You must have heard I was the Secret Keeper?"

Harry nodded.

"It… was more complicated than that. You see, we knew Voldemort was coming after your parents. So I got the brilliant idea to change Secret Keepers with Pettigrew. We believed nobody would think of him at all, only it looks like he had the last laugh, because when I confronted him he blew the street up after bellowing out for everyone to hear that _I_ had been the betrayer. Bastard would probably be laughing up his sleeve if he hadn't killed himself in the explosion."

Altress seemed to shake loose from his mesmerized state. "This is all really quite fascinating, but you've as much as admitted you 'as good as' killed Mr Potter's parents, and you were caught on the scene and allowed yourself to be led away to Azkaban. Hardly the words of a totally innocent man, Mr Black."

Sirius seemed at a loss at how to respond. Finally, Harry broke the silence and said, "Could we get some drinks or anything like that?"

Shacklebolt nodded at Harry, then gestured at one of the Aurors on Sirius's side. "Get the man a glass of water as well."

Dobby only hoped Harry would have more doubts about Sirius Black's guilt when this visit was over.

* * *

Author Note: Taking this back up, as you see :) Dobby and the butterfly effect continue to work for Harry's good. :)


	16. Chapter 16

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 16

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Harry finished his water, and looked at Dobby. "I forgot to ask if you needed any water, by the way."

Dobby shook his head. "Dobby doesn't need any."

Sirius rose slightly in his chair, prompting the Aurors near him to shift closer. Shacklebolt waved them back when he noticed Sirius seemed to be peering at Dobby, as the prisoner sat back down and looked at Harry again.

He gestured and said, "Your house-elf, Harry?"

Harry nodded. "Well, sort of. He's kind of a friend, too."

As the other adults chuckled indulgently, Sirius's eyebrows went up. Slowly, he laughed. "If Prongs could see you now, Harry. Friends with a house-elf, of all things!"

"Prongs?" asked Harry curiously.

"Oh, sorry. Just… an old nickname I had for your dad, Harry." Sirius shifted in the stiff chair and said, "Look, I really don't know what else I could say or tell you, except that I'm so very sorry, Harry. I really am. I…" Sirius trailed off, and Dobby could see that his eyes had gotten a bit wet.

Sirius turned his attention to drinking slowly from his glass of water, while Harry looked at his solicitor.

Rowan sighed heavily and said, "All right. I'm inclined to investigate your situation a little further, but the final decision is Harry's. Harry—do you want to stay any longer?"

Harry stared steadily at Sirius. "You never served Voldemort? Ever?"

"Heavens, no!" blurted Sirius. "I'd sooner jump into a volcano! Voldemort, good riddance!"

Altress suddenly peered sharply at Sirius. "You say his name, just as Harry did."

Sirius nodded. "Dumbledore used to say fear of his name is something we had to fight, back in the seventies. I see he's still passing that on, is he?"

Harry smiled slightly. "He told me the same thing at the end of my first year."

"So you're definitely at Hogwarts, then? What house?" Sirius's eyes twinkled as he mock-fearfully said, "Not Slytherin, is it?"

Harry laughed. "No. I'm in Gryffindor."

"Good, my old house! Excellent. Harry, excellent," Sirius replied. He relaxed a bit and said, "Say, what was yours, Mr, ah, Altress, was it?"

"Yes. Ravenclaw for me. Started Hogwarts in '43."

Sirius nodded. "Mmm. Play any Quidditch?"

Altress said, "Just a year. Then I got cut from the team because we got a better Chaser, and then the year after I hit fifth year and, of course, we had OWLs."

Sirius groaned. "OWLs. Good Lord. Only thing worse than that were the NEWTs. I played for a while, too. Beater in my day. What about you, Harry?"

"Seeker!" announced Harry. "Got the spot in first year, too."

Sirius whistled. "Now _that's _something even Moony would be impressed by, Harry!"

"Uh, who's Moony?"

Sirius grimaced. "Sorry, I keep using the old nicknames. Remus Lupin. Back in those days he was more studious than the rest of us. He should still be around, but I couldn't tell you where he is at all. I haven't exactly kept up. Wormtail, of course, was Pettigrew." Sirius coughed briefly.

Harry snapped his fingers. "Mr Black, I need you to do something. Can you show me your arms?"

Kingsley Shacklebolt said, "Harry? What's this?"

"I was doing some research on the Death Eaters of the 1970s and one thing I found after a lot of digging was an offhand reference to a mark on an arm. Is this commonly known?"

Grudgingly, Shacklebolt nodded. "It's not something you would normally learn about in school, but yes, some of us in the Auror corps know about that – mainly the older ones, but in my case one of my mentors was Mad-Eye Moody. He knew everything there was to know about Death Eaters."

Shacklebolt curtly nodded to the Aurors, He said, "Mr Black, _slowly_ expose your arms to Mr Potter and myself."

As was quite clear to all present, Sirius Black had no Dark Mark on his arm. Dobby, of course, knew this already, but was quite happy to see the satisfied look on Harry's face. Altress looked unperturbed, while Shacklebolt looked a bit confused. "Surely when you were arrested, would the Aurors or a Magical Law Enforcement squad not have taken photographs of your arms for evidentiary purposes, Mr Black?"

Sirius shook his head. "I was grabbed – wand confiscated – before I knew it I was in Azkaban. Barty Crouch's orders, of course."

Shacklebolt let out a frustrated sigh. "Unfortunately, the lack of a Dark Mark _now_ is not sufficient evidence; it could easily be argued that the mark has faded with the destruction of You-Know-Who, and without any evidence from your arrest in 1981, I don't see any way I could possibly get the authority to re-open the case against Mr Black. But I'm starting to become convinced that just _maybe_ there's more to this than at first glance." He eyed Sirius speculatively, who seemed energised with hope that someone might be listening to him for the first time in a decade.

One of the Aurors politely coughed and said, "Sir. The time."

Shacklebolt cast a time spell, then nodded. He clapped his hands together and said, "All right. I'm afraid our time is up. Mr Black, these gentlemen will take you to a holding cell here where you'll get a chance to freshen up before you go back to Azkaban. Take your time." To the Aurors he said, "However, you two are to keep a _close_ eye on Mr Black. If anything happens, you'll be answering to me. I want copies of all the paperwork when he's back in Azkaban, all right?"

Sirius stood up, his expression somber. Harry stood up, as did Rowan. Harry said, "Thank you for meeting me, Mr Black. I think you didn't kill my parents."

Sirius smiled widely. "Thank you, Harry. I'll take this memory with me – for as long as I can anyway. And, um, call me Sirius. When you say Mr Black I keep thinking you mean someone else."

Rowan bowed slightly as he gathered up his valise.

The Aurors escorted Sirius out of the meeting cell, and Shacklebolt in his turn, escorted Rowan, Harry and Dobby into the hallway. Shacklebolt gestured quickly, causing the other three to lean in closely. "I'm going to see if I can get the Warden to give him a better cell at Azkaban. I'm also going to instruct the Aurors to hold him overnight and send him back tomorrow. That'll give him a day's rest away from the Dementors. That's about all I can do officially for now, though. The rest will be up to you, Mr Altress. You understand?"

"I do. Harry? It's your decision."

Harry thought for a moment, then nodded decisively. "I think he's innocent, Mr Altress."

"Then let's try to set Sirius Black free."

/\/\/\/\

Back at Hogwarts, Harry said, "Dobby, you can do what you like for a while. I'm going to tell Ron and Hermione, okay?"

Dobby grinned. "Dobby is happy to hear the good news. Dobby thinks Ginny might also be interested, too."

"Ginny? I know she's gotten into some of our magic training sessions, but you think she'd be interested in this, too?"

Dobby nodded. "Dobby thinks so."

"All right, then. Take care, Dobby, and if I need any letters sent I'll let you know."

Dobby popped away and began cleaning the mud off the Quidditch stands, as there was a Quidditch match soon and the students must not sit on dirty seats.

While Dobby cleaned, he wondered again about why Harry Potter had seemed to suddenly have horrible headaches after leaving Severus Snape's office in fifth year. The office had been carefully warded against casual entry during these sessions, so Dobby had only been able to get as far as cleaning the hallway around the door, trying to hear anything on the other side.

Unfortunately, he had had duties around the castle in his old life, and being paid by Dumbledore to work for Hogwarts meant he had to work for Hogwarts and not for Harry Potter, so he had never learned what caused these things to occur. But he knew that they seemed to have ceased in his sixth year and he knew that Harry had also no longer needed to visit Snape after hours in his office.

However, thought Dobby as he focussed his magic on a particularly troublesome mud patch, a man that would kill the Headmaster and let the Carrows harm house-elves must surely have done something horrible to Harry Potter, and this must surely be avoided this time!

_But what could it possibly be?_ wondered Dobby.

* * *

Author Note: :-)


	17. Chapter 17

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 17

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby was talking with the Weasley twins outside Hogwarts on an unseasonably warm weekend day in early October, just a few days after Harry met Sirius. The twins were sprawled out on the grass near the Quidditch Pitch, while Dobby was standing near them. If asked, he would say they had interrupted his cleaning of the change rooms.

Fred had just said, "Wondered why Lockhart was giving us suspicious looks!"

George grinned. "We're the picture of innocence, we are, right, Dobby?"

"Dobby thinks you protests a bit much, sirs." He had heard of the way Fred and George had left Hogwarts after Dolores Umbridge had provoked them far enough with her restrictive rules and regulations. That said, Dobby had to admit she never harmed the house-elves, unlike the Carrows (although he had still been required to obey her orders, since he was paid by Hogwarts and she was, at one point, the acting Headmistress.

But he knew the twins would, if they could, prank someone and pretend to be unaware of it afterwards; their definition of innocence, it seemed, was fairly flexible.

"You wound us, Dobby, you do!" moaned Fred with exaggerated sadness. Seeing that Dobby was unmoved by his acting, he said more quietly, "By the way, George and I've noticed Harry and Ron and Hermione have all been putting their heads together in the afternoons, and Ginny's been hanging about them more often as well. What's doing? Can you tell us?"

"You know that Dobby has accompanied Harry Potter sir to visit Sirius Black. He thinks Mr Black is innocent, so he has been talking with his friends about what to do next." Dobby's ears pricked up. "Dobby wonders why you are interested."

"We can't be practical jokers _all_ the time, Dobby," remarked George. "Can you tell us what they talked about?"

"You are ought to be asking Harry Potter, sirs. But Dobby does remember that they was checking him for a mark on his arm, and that Harry Potter's father was called Prongs."

Fred sat up bolt upright. "_Prongs?_ No mistake about that, Dobby?"

Dobby shook his head. "Dobby heard Mr Black say this."

The twins jumped to their feet. "Quick! Come with us!"

/\/\/\/\

In Gryffindor Tower, Fred swiftly located a blank piece of parchment in his trunk, grinned at George, and said, "C'mon, let's find Harry."

Dobby guided them to an empty classroom where Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione were all reading over one of Percy's fourth-year spellbooks. Harry smiled and said, "What's up?"

Fred and George grabbed some empty chairs and sat down near Harry. Earnestly, Fred said, "Harry, can you tell us _exactly_ what you and Sirius Black talked about?"

Harry related the conversation he'd had in the holding cell, and George grinned widely. "You have no idea how you've helped us, Harry! Here, see this?"

Ron snorted. "What, an empty bit of parchment?"

Didactically, Fred said, "Ah, Ron. You don't appreciate real genius! _This_ 'empty bit of parchment' has taught us more about this school than all our professors combined!"

George continued. "Now, we're trusting you all quite a lot with this, all right? You can't go tattling to the teachers. _Especially_ not Snape. He'd love to have this, I'm sure."

Hermione squinted at the twins. "You've been using that to hide secrets somehow, haven't you? Well, _I _think that's rather asinine of you."

Fred and George laughed uproariously. "If only! No, _this _secret was hidden before we ever got here. You see, once upon a time, we were in Filch's office—"

Ginny broke in, saying, "In just a month here I've already heard about you getting sent there twice. And God only knows Mum's ranted about it when I was at home! When are you ever _not_ in his office?"

"Patience, Gin," said Fred as he held up his hand, and George waggled the parchment in his hand. "Now, we distracted Filch with a Dungbomb—"

"And of course, we promptly feasted our eyes on the filing cabinet labelled 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous', and this was in it!"

Theatrically, Fred and George opened the parchment and held it between them. George tapped the parchment with his wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"

Everybody's eyes (except Fred's and George's) went wide as they saw the map of Hogwarts bloom across the parchment, and the words that accompanied it.

"Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs  
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers  
are proud to present  
THE MARAUDER'S MAP"

Dobby remembered how Harry had spoken of a "map" when he had been following Draco Malfoy in his old life, but had never actually seen it. So _this_ was the all-seeing map Harry could use! And now he understood who Wormtail had been and why Harry, in his old life, had hated the man so much.

"_Prongs!_" blurted Harry. "That's my father, Sirius said!"

Dobby said, "Dobby reminds Harry Potter that Sirius Black called Peter Pettigrew 'Wormtail', also."

Ron excitedly said, "Wow! This map – it's kind of like a living history. This means your dad, Harry, had three friends in school. And they called themselves the Marauders!"

Hermione threw cold water on Ron's enthusiasm when she said, "And this Pettigrew was one of them. Wasn't he?"

Briskly, Ginny said, "All right. Hold on." She peered more closely at the map. "So Prongs was James Potter. Wormtail was Peter Pettigrew. Who're Padfoot and Moony?"

Harry snapped his fingers. "Moony's Remus Lupin. Sirius mentioned that bloke, remember?"

"So Padfoot is Sirius Black," said Ginny. "Wonder why they chose those strange nicknames, anyway."

Fred grinned. "Harry, you've _got_ to have this. We've already studied this Map well enough to have it memorised by now, right, George?"

George nodded. "Yeah. 'Fact, I can tell you right now how you might want to sneak to Hogsmeade. See this passageway here? Where it joins to the fourth floor? There's a mirror covering the opening. Just go to it, and then use the Map. It'll tell you what the password should be for unsticking the mirror from the wall, and it's a straight shot to an abandoned garden out a ways from the town."

Dobby could see the route indicated by George's finger. Excitedly, he wondered—

"Say! This shows Dumbledore! See? There's his name, next to his feet, pacing around!" Ron announced. "And there's McGonagall, in her office. See? Her feet aren't moving."

In an instant, realisation flashed across Dobby. If Peter Pettigrew were in Hogwarts, it was just a matter of time until Harry could find him! He couldn't say it out loud, since they all thought Pettigrew was dead, of course, but it wouldn't take long. He wondered why the Weasley twins hadn't yet noticed Pettigrew's presence, but reasoned that they'd been more interested in exploring areas of the castle _without_ students nearby, or in finding ways to leave the castle unnoticed.

Fred stood and beckoned to George. They winked at each other. "One last thing, Harry, before we resume our illustrious careers as prank-makers and mischief-makers. To wipe the map clean—"

Fred tapped the map with his wand and said, "Mischief Managed."

In a moment, the map became a spare bit of parchment again.

"That's all there is to it! Good luck, everyone. And may the Marauders live on, eh?"

The twins sauntered out of the room, leaving the four humans and one house-elf to return to marvelling over the Marauder's Map for the next half hour until finally Hermione primly reminded them they ought to be revising their advanced spellwork. As she put it, "That Summoning Charm could come in handy one day."

Ron snickered. "Maybe I could Accio Brain and help myself out, hmm?"

Mock-skeptically, Harry said, "I don't think it works that way; after all, you wouldn't be able to fit both in your head."

Ginny piped up, saying, "Let's get to it already – I've got an extra year I need to catch up, you know!"

With that, Dobby took his leave and went to clean the Transfiguration classroom, which had gotten rather jumbled up thanks to the seventh-year bird conjuration exercises.

/\/\/\/\

Near Halloween, Dobby met Remus Lupin for the first time in this new life when he was called to bring a tea service to an unused classroom. In it, he saw that Professor Flitwick was seated next to the werewolf at a round table, with Harry near the professor; Harry's friends were absent.

As Dobby laid out the tea and biscuits, Lupin quietly said, "Hello. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, and to have briefly met your friends when I first came in. Unfortunately it took two weeks to arrange to meet you here; I'd have come earlier if I possibly could."

Harry nodded at Dobby and said, "Thanks for the tea. Could you just wait here in case we need more tea or anything?"

Dobby said, "Dobby will be in the corner." And so saying, he moved off to a quiet corner of the room, his sensitive ears still able to pick up the conversation between the three people, and he could see the three people fairly well from the angle he had chosen.

Harry looked at Lupin for a few moments, seeming to study him.

Flitwick gently broke the silence by saying, "By the way, Mr Lupin, it's good to see you again after such a long time away from school. Your Charms work was always very good, you know."

Lupin replied tentatively, "I'm glad to hear that, Professor. Could you clear up something for me, though? I was given to understand that Harry has been Sorted into Gryffindor, not Ravenclaw."

Flitwick smiled. "Purely a preference by Mr Potter. And in any case we'd want to have a professor present while a student meets a non-relative."

Harry finally spoke up. He said, "So, um, hi." He smiled just slightly and said, "Thanks for seeing my friends earlier, Mr Lupin. I'm also glad you got my letter, although Professor McGonagall had to arrange for me to send my letter through the international Floo. Why were you in Canada, though?"

"It's a long story, Harry. After your father and mother died, and then Peter—" Lupin paused for a moment, as though he recalled something. He shook his head, and continued. "Anyway, Peter died and Sirius was found to have been guilty of aiding the attack on your parents, there really didn't seem to be much left for me here.

"I sold what little I had, and cast about for something to do in another country. As it happens, in a place called British Columbia, people spend the warmer months of the year planting trees in out of the way places. It's a rather demanding, repetitive job, but the notion suited me perfectly. I got the necessary approvals from the Canadian Department of Magic, and by 1982 I was in the bush, up near a place called Terrace, planting trees. I moved around the province from time to time, but really, for the last decade I've barely seen more than a handful of human beings at any one time.

"I will say, Harry, getting your letter forwarded to me through the international Floo by domestic owl in B.C. was rather a shock. I knew then and there I _had_ to come see you, because – well, it's _you_, Harry. You're James and Lily's son."

Harry said, "But why didn't you come see me before?"

Remus seemed uneasy as Dobby noticed him fidgeting on his chair. "To be honest, I... I'm not sure. At the time though, I was just wanting a break. A change of perspective, considering I'd lost all of my closest friends in one go. I'm also not considered a fit guardian for a child, for one thing. For another, I was told you were to be placed with Lily's sister, and inasmuch as I was concerned about it, the fact is she has more of a legal claim to you than I do. She never liked any of us much, and the one time I _did_ try to visit, just to see you before I left, she refused to let me in the house and shouted that if I came back she'd send you to an orphanage where I'd never be able to find you."

Lupin coughed and swallowed his tea. "But I should have tried harder, Harry. I'm sorry."

Harry changed the subject with some effort. "Anyway, I asked to visit you because I don't think Sirius Black did what they say he did."

Lupin, looking rather surprised, nearly dropped his teacup, prompting Dobby to prepare to pop over to the table and clean up the mess. Luckily, Lupin caught it in time, and placed it carefully on the table. Flitwick also looked somewhat surprised, and he said, "Mr Potter?"

"I got permission to visit Sirius earlier this month, Professor. I'm pretty sure he wasn't the one who betrayed my parents."

Remus Lupin looked to be completely at a loss for words as he stared at Harry.

* * *

Author Note: Portions of this chapter have been adapted from _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_. Also, I patched a mistake pointed out by stonegnome1 - the Marauders are a group of four. :)


	18. Chapter 18

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 18

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

As Lupin and Flitwick listened attentively, Harry went on to summarise the research he and his friends had done on Sirius, and relayed Sirius's statements about Peter Pettigrew.

At that, Dobby noticed a frown cross Remus Lupin's face briefly, and he said, "Excuse me a moment. Your friend – Ron, if I remember correctly?"

Harry nodded.

"Does he own a pet rat?" inquired Lupin.

"Er, yes, though I don't think Scabbers was with him when we met at the entrance to Hogwarts," replied Harry. "Did you have a pet rat once? I remember hearing their cages could get a bit of a smell to them."

Flitwick looked concerned, and Harry hastily continued, "But Scabbers is really clean, Professor. I've never seen him make a mess on Ron's bed or near it."

Lupin replied, "Well, it's a long story. But if I could see your friend's rat, I'd be much obliged."

Harry shrugged. "Sure. I think Ron and Hermione'll be at Gryffindor Tower by now. Ginny, too, come to think of it."

Flitwick called Dobby over and said, "We'll be leaving the room. Could you clean this up for us?"

Dobby nodded and began clearing the tea things away as the two adults and Harry left to see about Ron's pet.

Dobby wasn't sure why Lupin was so interested in Scabbers, but assumed it had to do with the slightly strange magic he'd sensed on the rat earlier. After returning the tea set to the kitchen, he went about his normal cleaning duties.

/\/\/\/\

The first jolt of danger, coupled with Harry's Call, caught Dobby by surprise as he was laundering the Ravenclaw students' clothing. The other laundry elves knew immediately what had happened and rushed to grab the pair of trousers Dobby had dropped in his shock, even as Dobby was already popping away to guard Harry Potter.

He materialised into the Common Room in Gryffindor Tower, where an ungainly rat-faced man was holding Harry hostage near the stairway to the boys' bedroom chambers, his wand pointed at the boy's head. Lupin and Flitwick, a few feet away, had their wands out, pointed at the man, while the few other students in the room huddled against one of the couches.

Dobby, alarmed, bellowed, "You shall not harm Harry Potter!"

The man cackled insanely and said, "And what will _you_ do about it, elf? I've got Harry right here, and I won't give him up! Hurt me, and he'll be dead before you can do anything about it!"

Flitwick yelled, "Don't do it, Pettigrew! You hurt Mr Potter, and _you'll_ be dead before the day's over. You want to chance being the target of a mob enraged over the death of the Boy Who Lived?"

Lupin snarled, "Wormtail, if ever you wanted any mercy, you've just cost yourself! Let Harry go, and you _may_ get away alive."

Pettigrew began slowly sidling over to the entry corridor, which opened out past the Fat Lady, keeping his back to the wall and clearly enjoying the frustrated looks on Flitwick's and Lupin's faces as they tried to get a good angle for a shot, but dared not cast a spell in case Pettigrew would take the chance to hurt or kill Harry.

Dobby, at a loss for how to petrify Pettigrew without the man being able to react to it, was beginning to feel the impulse to punish himself for not being able to protect Harry, as was his self-imposed directive.

He decided to pretend he was being called away by the Headmaster. He loudly wailed and beat his head on the floor as he cried, "Dobby has been a bad elf! Dobby must bring the Headmaster his chocolate candies! He is being most insistent and Dobby must obey him!"

He popped away, rematerialising just outside the Fat Lady's painting. He pressed his ear to the painting and overheard Peter Pettigrew gloating loudly. "That house-elf won't help you now, will he, Harry? Just lucky we missed that Stunner dear _Remus_ tried sending my way when the creature disappeared to go play fetch for Dumbledore! Out the Fat Lady we go, and I'm home free!"

Dobby backed up, letting the painting just begin to swing open. At the moment he saw Pettigrew's foot snake out of the passageway, he pointed his finger and wordlessly cast the strongest immobilisation spell house-elves knew; it was irreversible by wizards and only used in the event of the most imminent, dire threat to a house-elf's master.

Dobby then immediately began pulling Harry out from under Pettigrew's frozen-crooked arm, yelling in his mixed anger and relief, "You is a bad man, Peter Pettigrew! You has harmed Harry Potter!"

The relieved adults rushed into the narrow corridor as soon as they heard Dobby's voice, and soon they had Harry safely away from Peter's grasp. Everybody in the room crowded around Harry, asking if he was okay, if he was all right. Dobby vaguely noticed Flitwick send off a silver Patronus.

Harry rubbed his neck and said, "I'm all right, thank goodness. And Dobby! You were great! That idea of pretending you had to help Dumbledore was wicked!"

Hermione beamed as she said, "Only someone like _him_ could believe a house-elf would think it more important to indulge some whim of the Headmaster's than to protect a student's life."

Ron, next to Harry, shivered. "I still can't believe it. Scabbers was… _him_? 'Wormtail'? I let him sleep in my _bed!_ Ugh!"

Speaking of the man, Dobby noticed Lupin and Flitwick had him on the floor of the common room, trying to un-petrify him with every spell they knew. Dobby said anxiously, "Harry Potter! Does you require anything? Anything at all?"

Harry shook his head. "Just need to calm down. What a shocker! I can't believe it, Ron, can you?"

Ron shook his head. Dobby blurted, "What happened? Dobby only knew there was danger to Harry Potter!"

Ron explained, "I'd just gotten Scabbers from upstairs to show Mr Lupin when all of a sudden, Lupin starts squinting really closely at him, like he recognised Scabbers somehow. That's when the ruddy bugger bit me. I dropped him, then he became human and grabbed Harry and began threatening us all."

Dobby noticed that Dumbledore and McGonagall had now entered Gryffindor Tower, and were looking at the immobilised Pettigrew. Dumbledore's face showed steely resolve, while McGonagall's showed astonishment. Lupin began whispering quietly to Dumbledore as the Deputy Headmistress began trying her hand at unfreezing Pettigrew.

Dobby quietly unfroze Pettigrew just after McGonagall cast one of the higher-powered cancellation spells to an _Immobulus_, and Dumbledore fixed his steely blue eyes upon the now-very-frightened man.

"Peter Pettigrew. I see that you are missing a finger, but that you are also clearly alive. How come you to be alive when we assumed you were quite dead? I find it also quite curious that you had the ability to become a garden rat, apparently at some point in the years prior to your confrontation with Sirius Black." Dumbledore's wand flicked quickly at the end of that sentence.

Astonishingly, Pettigrew's bravado and bluster of just a few moments before completely deserted him as he pleaded with the Headmaster. "Sirius! He was _threatening_ me in that alleyway! How was I to fight him? I admit it – I ran away! I hid! I didn't know if he'd come back for me again. Surely – surely you understand how the Dark Lord's Death Eaters could be so dangerous in those days!"

McGonagall, with some asperity, spoke with a distinct Scottish burr as she barked, "And so you had no intention of reporting yourself to Auror Office after Sirius Black was safely locked up, did you? You were given the Order of Merlin – praised for fighting You-Know-Who's most dangerous helper – his second in command!" She snorted. "I think now I should wonder who the _real_ second in command was!"

Dumbledore fixed Pettigrew with a fearsome gaze. Dobby thought it the first time he had ever seen the Headmaster actually be angry with someone. He said quietly but firmly, "You will tell me why you did this, Peter."

Peter snivelled, "What could I have done? The Dark Lord… you have no idea… he has weapons you can't imagine… I was scared! I never meant it to happen… He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced me — He — he was taking over everywhere! Wh — what was there to be gained by refusing him?"

Lupin roared, "You should have stuck by us! We would have died for you! To think I thought you were one of my truest friends! You switched, didn't you? And never told anyone, either!"

"I was never brave, like you, or like – like James and Sirius! Who can be brave in the face of the Dark Lord, Remus?"

"Enough of this twaddle, Peter Pettigrew!" barked McGonagall. "You've done a great wrong, and so help me, I'll see it set right even if I have to take on the entire Ministry myself!"

Dumbledore nodded. "We must contact the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at once." To the room at large, he said, "All of you, I must apologise profusely for what has happened to you all. And Harry, I understand you were a victim of Mr Pettigrew's hostage-taking attempt. If you need anything, please ask. I will need to speak to you later regarding today's events, as well as have Madam Pomfrey examine you. I assume you're not injured?"

Harry shook his head in the negative.

"Very well. We will have this man away from you very shortly."

Harry nodded, clearly relieved. Dobby noticed Pettigrew was looking around shiftily, but before Dobby could rush to Harry's aid again, the man abruptly screamed. The Headmaster's eyes twinkled just a bit as he said, "I neglected to mention that I have cast an anti-transformation spell. The story of a rat changing to a human needed no further explanation than that you are an unregistered Animagus. Now come quietly, or I will have to take further measures."

The adults all left the common room, with Pettigrew under heavy guard.

Ron shook his head. "Wow! _There's_ a story and a half!"

Hermione nodded. "And now we know why 'Wormtail'. What else would you call a shifty rat?"

Harry leaned back, relaxing on the couch as he said, "Right now I'd like to do anything but think about what happened today. Can we have a go at some Exploding Snap, or something?"

Before long, the formerly frightened students were laughing and smiling. Dobby decided to begin quietly clearing up some of the dustier corners of the common room, in order to fulfill both of his duties as a house-elf of Hogwarts and Harry Potter.

* * *

Author Note: Portions of this chapter have been adapted from _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_.


	19. Chapter 19

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 19

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Professor McGonagall came back for Harry to escort him to Madam Pomfrey. Dobby quietly secreted himself in a corner of the hospital wing. With that done, he was able to overhear as Pomfrey tutted over Harry, currently seated on one of the hospital beds.

"Well, Mr Potter, aside from your fright with that horrible man, and minor bruising around your neck – let me just give you a quick healing potion for that – you appear to be fine." The results of a diagnostic spell hovered in the air above Harry's head, then disappeared as Pomfrey nodded her head and handed Harry a reddish-colored potion.

Dobby, relieved that Harry was, in fact, fine, decided he needed to enlist the other house-elves in a more active way to improve Harry's safety. But that would come later, as Harry was dismissed by Pomfrey, causing McGonagall to ask Harry to accompany her to the Headmaster's office.

Dobby promptly popped quietly to the rafters, as he had the previous time, and saw that Rowan Altress, Remus Lupin, Professor Flitwick, and the Headmaster were in the room along with an unfamiliar woman who wore a monocle. Peter Pettigrew was missing. Dobby tried to remember if he had ever seen her in his old life.

After a slight grinding sound stopped, the doors opened into the Headmaster's office, and Dumbledore said, "Thank you, Minerva. Everyone, please sit down."

The group of people all sat in chairs either already present or specially conjured for the occasion. Dumbledore said, "First of all, Harry, this woman is Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

Harry quietly said, "Hello."

Bones nodded and said, "Hello, Mr Potter. This case is important enough that I felt I should attend to this matter personally, rather than sending Auror Shacklebolt to handle the questioning. I have him currently guarding Mr Pettigrew in a holding cell.

"Now, Mr Potter, I would like to ask if you would mind telling me what happened today. If you wish to do this in private, the law compels me to advise you to have your solicitor present in the same room."

Harry shook his head no. "I'll be fine here."

From a valise near her, Bones removed a Dictating Quill, and some sheets of parchment which seemed, to Dobby's eyes, a bit thicker than the usual kind. She conjured a small table in front of her, and set the quill to be ready to transcribe anything said in the room. She spoke firmly, "Victim Statement Recording of Harry Potter, taken by DMLE Head Amelia Bones. Date: 30 October 1992. I, Amelia Bones, swear that no coercion or undue influence has been used to make this recording on Evidentiary Parchment."

Harry shifted, sat a bit straighter, and related the events of the late afternoon. Once he was finished, Bones picked the Dictating Quill up from the page it had been writing on, and turned it off. She tapped her wand to the last piece of parchment, which briefly glowed gold. She said, "A copy of this will be provided to you, Mr Potter. This document is now sealed and unalterable. Any attempt to modify it will make the Evidentiary Parchment permanently turn red."

Harry then reminded Madam Bones of the letter he had written her, then asked, "How soon can Sirius Black be set free?"

Bones looked at Altress, who said, "I was going to send you a letter soon, Harry, asking for you to sign paperwork regarding filing a motion before the Wizengamot to have Sirius Black's case re-opened in order to solidify our case that he be released. Now that Peter Pettigrew has been found alive, it casts strong doubt on the accusation that Sirius killed anyone, and I think we should instead file a civil suit against Mr Pettigrew in concert with the criminal charges that I assume are going ahead?"

Amelia Bones nodded. "Section 77 no longer holds us back, as the crime for which Mr Black is being held can now be conclusively proven to have never been committed. Given this, it is now very unlikely that Minister Fudge will try to overrule my signed order, already sent to the Warden at Azkaban, that Mr Black be released to Ministry custody as a material witness in the case against Mr Pettigrew. Once the trial is finished, all pending charges against Mr Black will be formally dismissed."

Harry grinned widely, while Remus Lupin seemed to still be processing the sudden revelations the day had brought. Dobby, in his turn, was happy that now Sirius Black was no longer in Azkaban, the man who had truly brought harm to Harry Potter would be sent away for life.

Dumbledore nodded. "As Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, I can expedite the voiding of the Order of Merlin originally granted to Pettigrew in addition to any _pro forma_ proceedings necessary to fully exonerate Mr Black."

"Good," replied Bones. "And now, Mr Lupin, Professor Flitwick – if I could get statements from you both in addition to Mr Potter's, I'll be finished with you and can begin the process to have Pettigrew charged. I would like to ask you all at this time to avoid making any public remarks about this event until the charges are laid."

Everybody in the office nodded, and Bones began, by resetting the Dictating Quill on a new parchment, saying, "Witness Statement Recording of Remus Lupin…"

/\/\/\/\

The first sign that Dobby might be in for some difficulty was when Bones frowned, saying, "All the statements given mention a house-elf who briefly entered the room, crying out that Harry should not be harmed, and who then falsely claimed to be called away by the Headmaster in order to capture Pettigrew outside the painting at the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.

"I confess I find this a rather unusual level of attention to one student, _and_ a rather uncommon level of subterfuge for a house-elf. Headmaster Dumbledore, are you aware of any Hogwarts house-elves who have shown unusual talent or ability?"

Dobby was frantic! He hadn't wanted to attract the Headmaster's attention! He strenuously tried to resist smashing his head against the wide beam he was standing on as he nervously wondered what would happen next as Dumbledore gestured to Harry.

Harry blushed. He said, "Um, there's a house-elf named Dobby who's kind of… attached himself to me. He must have decided the only way to help me was to try and fool Pettigrew."

"That kind of behaviour would be consistent with a rather desperately protective house-elf, I think," remarked Dumbledore.

Bones frowned. "But a house-elf shouldn't…" she trailed off, wondering.

Dumbledore said reassuringly, "In truth, Madam Bones, the capabilities of house-elves have never been fully understood; house-elves have traditionally been considered beneath the notice of many wizards and witches – even when their masters and mistresses have been generally kind, by wizarding standards. Do you expect to need to call him to be a witness at Mr Pettigrew's trial?"

"Frankly, no. His testimony wouldn't be considered as worthy as Mr Potter's, or for that matter, you two," indicating Lupin and Flitwick. "I will advise the interrogators to de-emphasise the house-elf's role in the matter." She filed away all the statements and the Dictating Quill in her valise, then Vanished the conjured table. "I think we're finished here, then."

With that everybody stood up and began saying their good-byes to each other. Dobby, tremendously relieved, went to the kitchens and found Wibby, the head elf.

It was not lost on Dobby, however, that having now gotten the Headmaster's attention, he soon might be compelled to reveal more about his true mission and origins.

* * *

Author Note: Dobby can only dodge a bullet for so long. We'll see what happens, eh?


	20. Chapter 20

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 20

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby spoke to Wibby and enlisted the house-elves into keeping an unobtrusive standing watch on Harry Potter. They had been horrified at the attack on a student (and Harry Potter, at that!), and readily agreed to inform the Headmaster the instant anyone should attack Harry Potter or his friends.

Thus it transpired that one or more house-elves would always be on the lookout when silently cleaning Gryffindor Tower, or when cleaning empty classrooms or the hallways during Harry's classes, if Dobby couldn't be available for any reason.

Luckily, it seemed, events settled down after Peter Pettigrew was found out. Harry wasn't asked to come to the trial, but Hermione devoured each day's issue of the Daily Prophet, and Harry read over anything relevant to the Pettigrew case. It turned out that he was sentenced to life in Azkaban. Kingsley Shacklebolt, via Rowan Altress, informed Harry that the cell Sirius Black once occupied would be Pettigrew's. Dobby rather liked the irony.

As it happened, Rita Skeeter's article next day in the Prophet was a two-page spread luridly detailing the entire sorry thing (arrest, lack of original trial, Pettigrew hiding out among the Weasley family, fortuitous capture and new trial plus verdict) from beginning to end.

Hermione, a bit stunned at her exaggerations and embroidering (Dobby was in the corner of the Gryffindor common room, unobtrusively keeping an ear out as he vanished some of the dust behind the curtains near the fireplace), said out loud, "Who on _Earth_ would go to this woman for anything? Can you imagine what she'd be like if she ever got it into her head to write nasty things about you, Harry?"

Ron had said, "Blimey! Thank goodness we didn't go to her like we'd originally planned."

"Yeah. I get the feeling by the end of it we'd have felt like we owed her more news, or something. Ugh!" replied Harry, sounding like he'd dodged something slimy.

Sirius Black, for his part, was visited by Dobby shortly after his release and transfer to St. Mungo's. Harry had unwittingly helped expedite this as he had said at one point, "Dobby, could you find out how Mr Black is doing?"

Dobby had nodded eagerly, his ears flapping every which way. "It shall be done!"

Dobby knew things about Kreacher that Sirius Black would need to know.

/\/\/\/\

Dobby was able to find Sirius fairly easily, as the St. Mungo's house-elves were happy to tell him where Mr Black was located. Shortly after, he materialised at the foot of the bed and saw Sirius Black was sitting up, reading a Daily Prophet.

"Sirius Black! Dobby is overjoyed to see you!"

He _did_ look a lot healthier. Someone had cut off all the extra hair and he had clearly had a bath or some other sort of regular cleaning regime since Dobby had last seen him.

The man sat up, a bit startled. "Dobby? Dobby … wait, you're Harry's elf, right?"

Dobby nodded sharply.

"Good!" Sirius smiled. "How's Harry doing? They won't let me out of here to see him yet, you know."

Dobby's ears drooped. "Dobby has been told that they have been keeping you here to get _better_, sir. But Dobby needs to warn you about your house-elf, Kreacher. Kreacher is a _bad_ house-elf, sir!"

"Wait. How d'you know about him?" wondered Sirius.

"House-elves talk to each other, sir." Dobby had thought carefully about this, and launched into his explanation. "When Dobby was former Master Lucius Malfoy's house-elf, he once had to meet Kreacher when former Master Lucius needed to speak with Mrs Black."

This part was (mostly) true. His former master _had_ gone in 1980 or 1981 to see Mrs Black about some sort of issue with the Black accounts former mistress Narcissa needed to get access to. And he _had_ brought Dobby. However, at the time Dobby had barely seen Kreacher. What he knew of the elf was from the 1990s, not the 1980s.

"Kreacher, sir, was saying he would be _most_ disobedient to you if you should ever become his Master, sir. And if Dobby may be permitted a slight bit of self-praise, Dobby has known ways to evade his former Master's orders while appearing to obey them." Dobby's ears pricked up as he stood as tall as he could and sternly shook his finger. "You are ought to be _considering_ this, Mr Black!"

Sirius frowned. "All right. Foul little bugger always did kiss my brother's and mother's arses. I guess I'll keep an eye on the little bastard if I ever have to reopen that house. Anyway, any chance you could carry a message for Harry? I could write a note."

"Dobby will bring it to Harry Potter at once!"

Dobby had some rather unkind thoughts about Kreacher as Sirius Black asked for some parchment and a quill from a nurse. Said nurse had blushed a bit after he chatted amiably with her for a while. Dobby, unsure as to what that meant, said nothing as he quietly tidied up Mr Black's bed and then cleaned the floor unobtrusively.

Kreacher had been a very _bad_ house-elf indeed! Dobby had overheard Kreacher muttering to himself at one point when they were following Draco Malfoy, and had been incensed at Kreacher praising himself for betraying Sirius Black to the Malfoys and then provoking his master to leave his house against the Headmaster's explicit instructions by _lying_ to Harry Potter! (Though it was not lost on Dobby that he was telling _lies_ in his new life; at least he did punish himself for that, he reassured himself.)

Only the fact that a dead house-elf would be rather hard to explain to Harry Potter had prevented Dobby from strangling him. As it was, Dobby's shouted recriminations (_"You is ought to be _ashamed_ of yourself!"_) in an unused part of the castle had fallen on deaf ears as Kreacher mused about serving the Malfoys and what a fine master Draco would be.

Shortly after, Sirius's note was finished and he smiled as he handed it to Dobby. "Tell my godson I'll try to see him soon. Ten years in Azkaban takes its toll, you know," he said a bit distantly.

"Dobby thinks you should stay here and get well, sir," Dobby said urgently. He said firmly, "Dobby will _keep_ you here, sir, if you are not well and you try to leave! Would Harry Potter like it if you were not well?" He remembered hearing Kreacher laugh over the way his master had been very depressed and a bit erratic during his stay at his old house, and he worried that Mr Black would become like that again if he tried leaving St Mungo's before he was ready.

Sirius politely said, "All right, all right. I'm just a little impatient to see him, you know."

"Dobby points out that Christmas will be coming soon."

Sirius perked up. "Of course! Maybe Harry can come visit then, eh? Oh, and can you take a note to Moony? He's been a little reluctant to show his face; seems to me we've got a lot to talk about. Hell, if I were in his shoes _I _wouldn't trust me, considering how it looked when Barty bunged me up in Azkaban."

Dobby nodded and waited as Sirius quickly wrote out another note for Mr Lupin. After that, Dobby said goodbye and popped away to deliver the messages.

/\/\/\/\

Dobby thinking so much about his past suddenly reminded him of Winky, the house-elf who had fallen into misery after being given clothes by Barty Crouch Senior. At this point in time, she was firmly keeping Barty Crouch Junior in his quarters and tending to his every need.

Dobby wondered how he could convince Winky that her duty to her master would be better served by letting him be arrested by the authorities, but could not, for the life of him, deduce how. Being a house-elf himself, he knew how strongly devoted his race was to the notion of duty to humans and how great a loss it could be if a master gave a house-elf clothes, especially if the house-elf had done nothing wrong in the first place.

As he washed dishes in the Hogwarts kitchens, his ears drooped further as he realised the Ministry would never believe a house-elf warning of a dangerous criminal being kept under lock and key by a very important person working there.

But Dobby _could_ warn Winky that she should keep an even closer eye on her Master Barty, just in case.

/\/\/\/\

Cautiously, Dobby popped into the Crouch household. Winky would likely be in their kitchens, and sure enough, she was preparing lunch. Startled at Dobby's entrance, she yelped, "What is you doing here?!"

"Dobby has come to see Winky! He has a _most_ important message for you," he said urgently.

Warily, Winky eyed him as she said, "This is _not_ proper house-elf behaviour! House-elves does not just pop anywhere they wishes! You is ought to be ashamed of yourself!"

Dobby couldn't help but mentally chuckle, remembering another time in his old life, when she had used much the same set of admonitions to him when asking to be _paid_ and take _holidays_.

Dobby said, "Dobby knows this. But Dobby has come to _warn_ you about Master Barty Junior!"

Winky gasped. "How does you know about Master Barty?!"

"Dobby reminds you who his former Master was – Lucius Malfoy! He has his ways, he does. But Dobby has only come to tell you to be _very_ careful about Master Barty and to not let him out of your sight even for a second! Master Barty Senior thinks he can control his son, but humans isn't perfect, Winky!" Dobby realised his grammar was beginning to slip in his agitation. "Dobby cannot explain _all_ of what he knows! He must keep Master Harry Potter's secrets and his silence."

Winky's eyes went even wider. In a quiet voice, she whispered, "Master _Harry Potter_ has ordered you to warn me?"

Dobby hesitated only the slightest of moments before he nodded decisively. "You know, of course, that Harry Potter is most kind and wonderful to house-elves and that he has defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named! Master Barty Junior would try to _serve him again_! This must not happen, Winky! You must watch him, every moment you can!"

Winky drew herself up and said authoritatively, "Winky will see to it that Master Barty does not leave this house! Even if she must _restrain_ him! Master Barty Senior will be pleased, she thinks."

Dobby, relieved, said, "Dobby thanks you. Now he must leave to serve the Great Harry Potter."

He popped away immediately after that.

* * *

Author Note: Thanks to all of you who've reviewed! I hope you like this latest installment. :)


	21. Chapter 21

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 21

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Dobby realised the time had come. It was necessary now for him to do this.

Dobby took a deep breath, and materialised near Harry just as he was waking up on a Saturday morning in November. Harry, surprised, blinked and sat up in his bed. "Dobby? What's wrong?"

"Dobby must talk to you about something, Harry Potter sir," he whispered.

Harry scratched his head, apparently a little puzzled. "Okay. Give me a few minutes, then meet me in the empty study room down the hall from the Fat Lady."

Dobby nodded swiftly and popped away to the designated room. He began cleaning it to occupy his time, and had just finished mopping the floor when Harry walked inside and shut the door. Dobby vanished the mop and bucket back to the house-elf cleaning supply closet, and rushed over to stand on one of the desks so he could be at eye level with his master.

"So what's up, Dobby?" Harry asked as he approached the desk. He bore all the signs a male human did of a quick shower and dress-up, and Dobby thought perhaps he should have waited until Harry had had a chance to wake up properly. The urge to punish himself rose, and he had to speak quickly to distract himself from it.

"Dobby regrets to ask this at all, sir, but Dobby – Dobby would like to be _paid_." He tugged his ear and said, "But not too much, of course."

Harry blinked. "Oh! That's no problem, really. I mean, you have to work for me, right? And when you're not working for me you work for Hogwarts. I'm sorry, I guess I never thought of it before, not even when Hermione was asking that house-elf about being paid and vacations and all that.

"Look, how about I get Ron and Hermione and we figure this out, because… unless you know anyone else who's a paid house-elf?" Harry's eyebrows furrowed.

Dobby shook his head. "Dobby is the only house-elf, as far as he knows, who is wanting to be paid for his work. But Dobby wouldn't ask too much. He thinks one Galleon a week and one day off a month would be fine."

Harry whistled. "That doesn't sound like a lot. If you want more—"

Dobby shook his head. "No! Harry Potter must not pay Dobby too much!" He thought, then temporised, "Perhaps later Dobby could ask for a raise?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't see why not. But how about we do this properly? Let me get Ron and Hermione to help me here and then we'll get it sorted out."

Dobby beamed and rushed to embrace Harry. Harry, surprised, almost forgot to return it, but patted Dobby's shoulder. As Dobby released Harry, he said, "Dobby must return to his work now. But you just has—no, just _have_ to call Dobby when ready!"

"Okay. See you later."

/\/\/\/\

As promised, Dobby was called by Harry as he was cleaning the Charms classroom, and he materialised in the same room where he had talked with Harry that morning, standing on one of the tables where the trio were seated.

"Hullo, Dobby," said Harry.

Ron grinned and waved. "You want to be paid, do you? There's a first!"

Hermione sat up straight and said, "I think that it's wonderful! House-elves shouldn't be treated as free labour; that's just rank exploitation, if you ask me!"

Ron groaned. "Look, Hermione, almost all of them think it's wonderful to do this stuff. You'll probably never convince all the house-elves, you know."

"Dobby is afraid Ron Wheezy is correct. But Dobby will not let that stop him from being treated properly!"

"Which brings me to how I think you and Harry should do this," Hermione interjected. "An employment contract. It doesn't have to be a long one; it just needs to say that Harry has to pay Dobby what they've agreed to, give Dobby vacations as agreed, and if Dobby wants to be freed Harry has to let him."

Dobby knew being a free elf was not for everyone. He also realised that in his old life, he had simply gone too fast for his fellow house-elves to ever accept him. So for now, he would happily accept being paid while working for Harry. Perhaps years later, he could ask to be freed and still work for Harry – preferably _after_ He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was properly vanquished.

What followed was a lot of discussion and writing things down. Dobby adamantly refused to be paid more than one Galleon a week ("Dobby may ask for a raise later, but he isn't getting airs.") or to be given more days off. ("He does not want the other house-elves here to think he is _lazy_, miss." "Hmph. If you ask me, they could do with some relaxation.")

In the end, Hermione's neat handwriting on parchment read:

_"Dobby, a house-elf in service to Harry Potter, a human being, is to be remunerated according to the following terms:_

_Dobby shall be paid one Galleon per week and may take one day per month of vacation, the date to be agreed upon to the satisfaction of both parties. These are minimum levels._

_Furthermore, the above remuneration may be renegotiated at any time but never to Dobby's disadvantage except under extraordinary circumstances._

_Dobby may be released from service to Harry Potter at any time upon Dobby's request.  
_

_This initial contract is to be made effective retroactive to October 31, 1992."_

Harry nodded. "Looks fine to me." He took Hermione's quill and scribbled his signature at the bottom of the contract. He pushed it over to Dobby and said, "How about it. Is it all right?"

Dobby grinned. "This is acceptable to Dobby."

Wielding the quill took some practice, but Dobby was able to passably write his name below Harry's. Hermione was positively beaming as she duplicated the contract for Harry and Dobby. She said, "I'll keep a copy as well. Perhaps this can be a template!"

Ron scratched his chin. "What'll you use the money for, Dobby?"

Dobby drew himself up and said, "Dobby has decided to make his own outfits, sir. He doesn't need to pay for lodgings or food, but he would like to have more than a Hogwarts house-elf uniform." He smiled and said, "Also, Dobby reminds you that Christmas is coming and Dobby can now make _presents_ for Harry Potter and his friends! But Dobby will not tell you what he is going to make."

Chuckles went around the table. Harry said, "I don't have any money on me right now, but I'll see what I have in my trunk and I'll write to Gringotts. Okay?"

Hermione produced one Galleon and gave it to Harry. "You can pay me back, Harry. That'll be Dobby's wages going back exactly one week."

Harry nodded to Hermione and handed Dobby the money. "That's for the week ending today, November seventh. I'll pay you every Saturday, how's that?"

Dobby nodded, his ears flapping. "Dobby is happy about this!"

Before Dobby could pop away, Harry reached out and gently snagged his shoulder. "Listen, I know what it's like to work hard for someone and not feel like you're appreciated. If you want anything, just ask me, okay?"

"Dobby will do that," he assured Harry. "But now Dobby must put his wages away in a safe place."

He popped away to his living quarters, and secreted his employment contract and Galleon inside an old dusty box in one corner of the room. After that, he resumed his cleaning of the Charms classroom, and thought to himself it was a relatively uneventful year for Harry Potter with no Chamber of Secrets to be opened.

* * *

Author Note: A rather simple filler chapter, to be sure, but it does set the stage for things down the road. :)


	22. Chapter 22

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 22

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

A few days later, Dobby was cleaning in a corner of Gryffindor Tower, unobserved by anyone, when he overheard Ron Weasley talking with Hermione Granger.

"How about the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare?" asked Hermione.

"Good grief, Hermione. You know what that would sound like?" groaned Ron.

"Well, it's Ess Pee E Double… oh, good _lord_, you're right. Spew?" Hermione's quill made a scratching noise on some parchment. "That sounds really unattractive. Well, how about…"

Ron said, "Maybe something like Helping House-Elves Everywhere? H.H.E.E.?" Doesn't sound really catchy but at least it's not _spew_, for Merlin's sake."

A sigh. "Hmm. Well, I hadn't really been thinking much about names for this organization I want to put together. I mean, we – you, me, and Harry, we've have been talking this over off and on, but we haven't done much. Harry getting you and me to come help him with the employment agreement got me thinking we need to push this more."

Dobby vanished some dust, then materialised behind the couch, which had a gap between it and the wall just wide enough for him to manoeuvre as he began cleaning behind the two closest friends of Harry.

"My mum would go spare if she knew we were even thinking of talking to Rita Skeeter, you know."

"Which is why I asked you to help me with the name before we go to Harry and maybe Ginny, too. We've really got to have it all lined up just right. I've been reading more of that woman's articles, and she has a real poison pen, you know. But she can talk up Minister Fudge like you wouldn't believe. 'The wise policies of the peacetime administration of Minister Fudge, et cetera ad nauseam' – I feel like I'm reading some old Soviet propaganda extolling the wiseness of Brezhnev, for God's sake."

Puzzled, Ron said, "The Soviet of what?"

"Never mind. The point is, we need to have a name nobody can make fun of, now that you've pointed out the problem with S.P.E.W. as a name."

"Hmph. How about Society for the Improvement of House-Elf Rights? Or League for the Improvement of House-Elf Protections?"

"Not bad, Ron!" Hermione got excited and scribbled with her quill (Dobby heard the scratching noise). "Or what about Improving the Welfare of House-Elves? You can't make a funny name out of that."

Dobby smiled to himself as he continued cleaning unobtrusively. He remembered how pushy Hermione had been in his old life about house-elf freedom, and while he thought an organisation to help house-elves was a fine thing, he knew from overhearing other students that they had mocked the S.P.E.W. name and groaned about Hermione Granger's insistent stridency on the subject.

This way, with a new name and different methods, maybe some masters and mistresses would take Hermione Granger seriously and think twice about abusing their house-elves.

/\/\/\/\

Christmas, 1992, was spent in Remus Lupin's house, though (as Dobby learned, when doing some of Sirius's food shopping) Sirius Black paid for the bulk of the expenses relating to hosting Harry and his friends plus Dobby, and asked Dobby to make sure the presents intended for Harry at Hogwarts were transported to Lupin's place, as Harry had only been told at the last minute that Sirius had been released from St. Mungo's on an outpatient basis; he had leaped at the suggestion that he spend Christmas with Sirius and Remus, and be able to visit with the Weasleys any time he wanted.

Ron had grinned, signing up to go back to his mother's, promising to make sure Harry got off at the right floo connection this time. Hermione elected to stay at Hogwarts, but said she would check with Professor McGonagall about arranging a Christmas Day visit.

Dobby, when he went shopping, had been puzzled, as he had in his old life, that socks seemed to come in twos exactly the same when he was looking for wool. Pippy, the house-elf at Madame Malkins, finally explained: "Humans, because they has two feet, likes to have two socks that is the same!"

Enlightened, Dobby had chosen more carefully this time what socks he would get for Harry Potter and his friends. He was practiced in the art of knitting socks, and so made two with green wool and golden snitches for Harry, then made two with broomsticks for Ron. For Hermione, he darned thick dark brown socks, designed to keep her feet warm. And for Ginny, two orange-red socks.

He didn't know what to get for Sirius Black or Remus Lupin, though, and nearly ended up hitting his head on the door to the Hogwarts kitchens before he realised that as a general rule, wizards and witches liked chocolate.

A trip to Honeydukes later, Dobby was armed with two basic boxes of wizarding chocolate; between those and his sock-making, nearly half his wages were gone, but he didn't mind. They were all his friends, and Harry was proving to be a very benign master indeed!

And so it was thus on Christmas morning that Dobby, in Lupin's house, waved his finger at the Christmas tree, whose fairy-lights began to glow an even white color. He made sure his presents (wrapped by Dobby himself!) were among all the others under the tree; the house-elves in charge of distributing presents had helped Dobby pick up the ones meant for Harry.

Shortly after Dobby had the cookware and utensils laid out for breakfast, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin padded out into the living area, seating themselves on Lupin's old but still sturdy couch. Harry arrived not long after, seeming a little bit shocked at the number of gift under the tree.

"Those can't all be for me, can they?"

Sirius barked a laugh. "Heavens, no, Harry! Some are for your friends, as well as Moony over there."

Harry looked a little relieved, actually, and he seated himself, looking at the two older men and at Dobby. Dobby moved at once to the Christmas tree and levitated out his own presents. He excitedly squeaked, "You must open these!"

Harry smiled when he unwrapped his present and saw his socks. "Thanks, Dobby! They seem pretty comfortable."

"Dobby has made them so your feet will stay warm in the winter!"

Remus Lupin and Sirius Black each chuckled at their chocolates. "Can't go wrong with Honeydukes, can you, Moony?" Sirius elbowed his friend, then joked, "Am I going to have to hide these from you, by the way?"

"I think not, Padfoot. Dogs get sick from eating too much chocolate, anyway." Remus grinned, then set his gift aside and said to Dobby, "Thank you very much. Harry has told us he's paying you wages, so this was a very thoughtful gift to get of your own accord."

Dobby bashfully nodded. "Harry Potter's friends are friends of Dobby, and Dobby wishes to do what he can for them."

"Well," announced Sirius, "it's only about eight in the morning, so why don't we three get to our presents, and leave the rest for when your friends come over later?"

Harry grinned. "Sure thing!"

It wasn't long before the presents were opened; Harry got a custom Sneakoscope from Remus ("It's been customised to be a little more selective about how it relays nefarious intent. If someone's just planning a prank on you, it makes a low buzzing noise. As the threat becomes more serious, the noise and volume of that noise increases. So if someone were to attempt an abduction, as Peter tried, believe me, that thing will go off like a Banshee."), and Sirius gave Harry a gift certificate at Quality Quidditch Supplies.

Harry's eyes bugged out at the amount, and Sirius laughed gently. "Consider it me making up for missing over a decade's worth of birthdays and Christmas presents. Any time you want to replace that Nimbus 2000 of yours, take that and go get yourself the best international standard broom they have, okay?"

"Brilliant!" Harry's expression turned jubilant as he looked around. "This has really been the best Christmas ever! Thanks!"

"Glad to do it, kiddo." Sirius sat up and leaned forward, his hands on his knees. His voice went soft as he said distractedly, "You know, Harry, your dad and I used to have great fun on Christmas at his parents' house. His family took me in when I left mine at the age of sixteen and I've never forgotten it. I only wish I could've returned the favour to you sooner than now."

Harry shook his head. "It's okay, Sirius, honestly. I'm really happy to be here; I've had a great time visiting Ron over vacation, and hearing from you and Mr Lupin about your times at Hogwarts."

Remus grinned. "Mister Lupin, is it? My God, I feel old all of a sudden!"

Impishly, Harry replied, "Well, it isn't Professor, right?"

Sirius roared with laughter. "Oh, he got you good, there! Professor Moony – I can just imagine it now."

"Laugh if you must, Padfoot, but I remember doing my fair share of tutoring you, Prongs and.. well, you know who the other one was."

"Blah. Forget Wormtail." Sirius mock-bowed. "But thank you ever so very much for enlightening me and Prongs about the Waddiwasi hex."

Now it was Remus's turn to laugh. "I remember that! I even demonstrated on Peeves when he wouldn't shut up."

Sirius fell back on the couch, laughing again as he tried to recite from memory: "Lupin and Black in a hall, F-A-R-"

Remus sent a small stinging hex at Sirius, as he mock-sternly said, "And who, I ask, was the one who so brilliantly thought of coating my chewing gum with a potion that was _supposed_ to relieve gassiness, but had the side effect of reacting with the elastic?"

"Hey! I chewed that blasted gum too! I have a bad reaction to chili, you know!" Sirius looked injured, but his expression ended up dissolving into a wide grin. "But I remember what you finally did. You stuck that gum on the wall, pointed your wand, and boom! Waddiwasi! Up old Peeves's nose, and boy, he hated it!"

Harry grinned and sat up, listening with Dobby to more of the endless humorous stories about the "Marauders" when they went to Hogwarts.

They were only interrupted when, two hours later, Ron's head showed up in the fireplace, letting them know he'd be flooing over to visit shortly.

* * *

Author Notes: Glad to see people are still enjoying this! I'm also trying to emphasize the friendship of the "Golden Trio"; too many fics bash Ron, and while some are sidesplittingly funny ("Harry Potter and the Champion's Champion", lookin' at you), it's not something I feel like doing in my fics. Sorry, folks.


	23. Chapter 23

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 23

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Ron, Ginny, Fred, George and Mrs Weasley all ended up Flooing over to meet Harry. Apparently after Ron had announced his impending visit, Ginny had clamored to go, which drew the attention of Fred and George, which in turn got Mrs Weasley deciding to ride herd on her children (especially the mischievous twins). After the Weasleys had all Flooed over, they placed more Christmas presents under the tree, and Harry gave each of the Weasleys the gifts he'd gotten for them (Remus had suggested keeping it simple; Ginny got a winter hat, for example, and Ron, a self-inking quill plus a small box of chocolates, and so on). Everybody set aside the presents for opening later.

The children, plus Dobby, congregated at the table in Remus Lupin's dining room (after adding extra place seatings to the magically expanded table) while the adults gravitated into the kitchen. Lupin had started preparing the breakfast, insisting that Dobby didn't need to help him with it, but Mrs Weasley had taken one look at the stove and said loudly enough for everyone to hear, "If you think I'm going to stand here and watch you make a mess of the bacon, think again!"

Harry managed to muffle his snickers, but a few laughs did escape from the others. Sirius's loud barking laugh overrode the rest, and Dobby could just see, from the seat he was standing on, Remus Lupin blush and good-naturedly tease Sirius as he stepped back from the stove. The older men got the eggnog out while Mrs Weasley quickly rescued Lupin's meal, and within half an hour, breakfast was ready.

Dobby leaped down from his chair, rushed into the rather confined kitchen, and promptly began helping levitate the food onto the special serving dishes. Mrs Weasley at first raised a half-hearted objection, then acquiesced in helping Dobby move all the delicious-smelling breakfast to the dinner table.

Dobby resumed his seat next to Harry and served himself some portions of the food. Ron was regaling Harry with a story about the colorful fireworks Fred and George had come up with to precede the gift-giving at the Weasleys (with the twins interjecting frequently to embellish some aspect of it); their mother, at first apprehensive, had actually relaxed and enjoyed the show by the end of it.

Meanwhile, Remus was saying to Mrs Weasley, "I didn't mean to have you do all that extra work; surely you and – ah, Arthur, I think?" At her nod, he continued. "Well, surely, you and Arthur have to do another round of cooking back at your house?"

Mrs Weasley laughed gently. "I'd only just gotten started when Ron told me he was visiting and then half of my brood suddenly wanted to go. So I just shrank all the food I was preparing and intended to cook, and brought them safely in my satchel to cook here. Breakfast is a pretty simple thing to do when you've been doing it for as long as I have."

"Thank you, then, for helping." Remus looked ruefully at his dish. "I can't say we have a lot of cooking talent between Sirius and myself, but I've managed to somehow not burn the house down in all these years."

After the delicious meal ended, the group migrated back to the living room and settled in around the Christmas tree. Sirius said, "We already did our gift giving so you kids go ahead and get started, all right?"

The wrapping paper flew as more presents were opened, and by the end of it Harry had found that Ginny (who blushed when he opened his present from her) had gotten him a green Christmas ornament, which he promptly hung on the tree. She had whispered barely loudly enough for Dobby's ears to catch, "It matches your eyes." Harry had smiled warmly at that, thanking Ginny again.

Ron, for his part, had gotten Harry the Quidditch book _Flying With the Cannons_. Harry, being a fan of all things Quidditch since he'd become Seeker, smiled and patted the book. "Thanks, Ron."

The twins had clubbed up and gotten Harry a Broomstick Servicing Kit. "Can't let our favourite Seeker get by without a well-polished broom, now can we?"

Dobby's ears picked up the ghost of a snicker from Sirius at that.

Harry's eyes bugged out when he opened Mrs Weasley's, and saw all the mince pies resting carefully on top of a clearly handmade jumper. He had gasped and said, "You didn't have to do all this, really, any of you."

Mrs Weasley firmly, but gently said, "Now, Harry, I'm not having any of that. I always cook lots of treats over the holidays and you certainly deserve to have several of your own." She sniffled loudly and pontificated, "If those relatives of yours had any decency to them at all they'd have done the same for you without question. And my children can decide for themselves who they will and will not give presents to." She beamed proudly at her family, and it was clear none of the Weasley children had needed to be coerced into getting something for Harry at Christmas.

The uncomfortable pall that settled around the room was broken when Fred sniggered. "Look at the tiny box here! 'Harry. From Vernon and Petunia.' What's it got, dud coins?"

Harry reluctantly opened the box and laughed as some unfamiliar coins and a bill fell out when he tilted the box over. "I can't read any of these!" he laughed.

Remus held out his hand and took the three coins and the banknote. He peered at them and announced, "Well, somehow your Uncle Vernon saw fit to give you a Yugoslav dinar and a five, ten, and twenty kopek coin, all stamped in the 1980s. Worth practically nothing as pounds sterling or in Galleons."

"Mr Weasley would probably like them, then, since they're Muggle currencies," Harry noted.

Dobby didn't miss the look of fond exasperation on Mrs Weasley's face as she held out her hand for the money. "I'll see Arthur gets them. But so help me, Harry, if he starts getting a mania about collecting these—"

George cheekily said, "Beats flying cars, doesn't it?"

The Weasley family exploded in laughter as Mrs Weasley tried to keep her look of stern admonishment. Harry, confused, said, "What about the, er, car?"

Ron said, "Mum caught Dad 'taking the car out for a spin', as he puts it, on Christmas Eve. Well, more like she caught him _landing_ the car and excitedly getting out of it saying he'd fixed the invisibility booster problem."

"Your father should _not _be doing that! Even if he did make sure there was a loophole in the law about not _intending _to misuse a Muggle Artefact," she huffed.

Sirius grinned. "Sounds like a man after my own heart! I need to get that motorcycle back from Hagrid eventually, now that I think about it."

"Hmm. Anyway, I should be getting back home and getting supper started. It was lovely seeing you again, Harry dear, and I'm glad I had a chance to meet you two, Sirius and Remus," Mrs Weasley said as she got up out of the chair near the fireplace. To her children at large, she said, "It's just gone noon now. Please be back home by four so you're in time for your supper, all right?"

A chorus of "yes, Mum"s went 'round the room. Mrs Weasley smiled, then Flooed away.

Sirius grinned. "All right, kids, coats on, mittens on. Snowball fight outside?"

To Dobby, it seemed as though the entire room went into a flurry of activity as everyone got their winter coats on and trooped outside of the house. Dobby quickly found an old sweater Remus had meant to discard, shrank it down to fit him, then popped outside and cast a light warming charm on himself to keep the worst of the cold off.

"Dobby! Heads up!"

Dobby immediately disappeared and reappeared two feet to his right just in time to see Harry's snowball whiz past him to splatter harmlessly against the side of the house.

Dobby waved his arms, causing four round snowballs to rise up out of the snow, and promptly launched them at Harry!

Harry, laughing, yelled, "Not fair, Dobby! I don't have my wand!"

A flurry of snow rushed over Dobby as Remus yelled, "But I do!"

Very soon, Ron and Ginny had managed to assemble a makeshift fort behind which they could crouch to avoid getting hit with snowballs, while Harry and the others ran from place to place and Dobby used his ability to pop around to confuse the others.

The snowball fight rapidly became a confusing battle, with no-one ever quite sure who was winning and who was losing, but all concerned thought it had been great fun by the time the Weasley children had to go home.

Even so, the grin never quite left Harry's face as he looked around the house after the last flame died in the Floo. Dobby, for his part, couldn't remember a time he had been simply accepted as a part of a group of humans without being expected to be a servant.

* * *

Author Notes: And coincidentally, a Christmas-themed chapter. :D


	24. Chapter 24

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 24

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Hermione Granger visited Harry briefly over Christmas as well, and upon exchanging gifts Harry found she had gotten him an expensive-looking eagle feather quill, while she beamed at the Flourish and Blotts gift certificate ("I didn't know what to get you, but since we're reading ahead…"). Hermione's quick hug had terminated any further worries from Harry about whether or not she liked his present.

But before long, Dobby was accompanying Harry back to school, and soon he settled back into his routine of assisting with the Hogwarts chores, and checking in on Harry's well-being at least once a day either directly or by reports from the house-elves who were detailed to clean up near Harry's location that day.

When Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione weren't busy doing their research and spell practice in the Come and Go Room, they had asked Dobby, "What do you think of the name 'Movement to Improve House-Elf Welfare'?"

Dobby nodded, pleased that it didn't sound like the SPEW from his old life. "Dobby thinks it should be fine, but Dobby would like to warn you that you _must_ not try to free house-elves who doesn't – don't want – to be free."

"Dobby, your verb conjugations are getting really good!" Hermione beamed, apparently forgetting Dobby's slight admonishment to be careful around house-elves.

Ron chuckled. "Well, we can start off small. Try to get people to treat their house-elves properly and all that, first."

Ginny looked over at Harry. "Harry, _please_ say you'll at least talk about this to someone from a newspaper?"

Harry, for his part, looked a little bashful, but slowly nodded. "I think we should take this to McGonagall or Dumbledore, make it an official school group and everything."

Nods all around, and then Harry, apparently satisfied, had gotten off his chair and said, "Back to practicing that Banishing spell, you know, the one the book says is 'Expelliarmus'. Dobby, do you mind?"

Dobby shook his head. "Dobby will stay and watch."

"''Kay then. Ron, back up near that far wall, so you're about twenty feet away. On the count of three—"

A few seconds later, the two boys flicked their wands, barking, "_Expelliarmus!_"

To Dobby's delight, even in this new timeline he saw that Harry still had the fastest reflexes, as Ron's wand flew through the air and landed smack in Harry's palm.

/\/\/\/\

Dobby got an unpleasant surprise a few days later, when he was detailed to clean the Slytherin dormitories during classes.

He popped into the common area, vanishing dust and cobwebs as usual while levitating the couches to make sure things were clean in those hard-to-reach places, and send any lost items to the Room of Hidden Things. As he prepared to move on to cleaning up the first-year boys' dormitory, a sudden POP in the centre of the common room startled him, and he turned around to spot a very familiar house-elf.

"Flipsy! What is you doing?!" Dobby yelped, surprised that Pansy Parkinson's house-elf had shown up at Hogwarts.

Flipsy, holding a box, nervously whispered, "Flipsy is here to deliver something _special_ to Little Mistress Pansy; Mistress didn't want to send it with an owl because she wanted to make sure an owl would not lose it."

Something didn't feel right to Dobby, but try as he might, he couldn't think of a way to get the box open without doing a grave discourtesy to a fellow house-elf, who would be offended at Dobby claiming the need to inspect it without a good reason; just because he was detailed to protect Harry Potter, didn't mean he knew a way to prove it fell in his purview to inspect a package going to another student entirely.

Trying not to show his sudden anxiety at sensing the slightly dark aura coming from the box, he finally nodded and said, "Dobby will not keep Flipsy waiting."

Flipsy seemed relieved and quietly said, "Flipsy heard of what happened to you at the Malfoys. She is happy you is now Harry Potter's house-elf."

Dobby beamed. "Harry Potter is _most_ kind, he is. But Dobby must keep working, as Harry Potter has asked that Dobby help the Hogwarts house-elves." And so saying, he moved on to cleaning the Slytherin dorms, wishing he could find out what Pansy Parkinson was receiving that seemed to have the unpleasant aura from the kinds of things former Master Lucius had at Malfoy Manor.

* * *

Author Notes: And the butterflies flap some more...


	25. Chapter 25

**Dobby's Return**  
Chapter 25

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

* * *

Just as Dobby finished cleaning the Slytherin boys' dormitory, he heard the unmistakable noise of the entrance wall grinding as it slid aside, admitting students who were quickly getting something from their room for the afternoon classes. Frustrated, Dobby tried popping into the second-year girls' dorm quickly. He spotted Flipsy's box on Pansy's bed, but just as he prepared to stealthily open the box, Millicent Bulstrode barged into the room. Dobby, having hurriedly jumped off Pansy's bed, didn't want to make a noise disappearing. She would have spotted Dobby but for the fact that someone called her name at the doorway and she turned to look at whoever was talking to her.

Dobby took that moment to quietly pop away to the kitchens, hoping the noise of conversation would keep Millicent from realizing a house-elf had been "cleaning" in the dorms (after all, elves were to be unseen and unheard).

While working in the kitchens, Dobby pondered and discarded plan after plan as he helped send second helpings of food to any serving dish that went empty, then later on started helping to clean the dishes. Unfortunately, his concern over finding something dark from former Master Lucius at Hogwarts began to get noticed…

"Dobby! You has nearly dropped _another _plate!" barked Wibby.

Dobby sighed, his ears drooping as he realised the plate he was about to transfer to the clean pile had nearly fallen from his fingers but for unconsciously gripping it after Wibby's warning. He'd already had one close call previously, and he didn't like to think he'd be considered an unreliable house-elf in Hogwarts.

"Dobby will do better," he said firmly as he strove to put all thoughts out of his mind except for cleaning duties for the time being. It was hard, but he managed to successfully clean the rest of the dishes.

/\/\/\/\

After dish duty was over and Dobby had finished helping prepare the dinner meal before the other kitchen elves began the cooking, he quickly popped up to the Great Hall and found Robby, the house-elf he knew had been on the informal rota to keep an eye on Harry Potter that day.

As they went through and cleaned in preparation for the night, Robby quietly informed Dobby that nothing had happened to Harry at lunch or immediately after. Slightly relieved, Dobby mentioned the strange gift that Pansy had received (albeit without mentioning he had contemplated stealing it or otherwise interfering with another student's mail). Robby, a bit skeptical, said, "And how is you so sure it will harm Harry Potter?"

"Dobby doesn't _know_! He only knows that former Master Lucius had Dark Arts things he liked to buy in Knockturn Alley." His ears drooped again. "We should finish here, Robby. Dobby will personally watch Harry Potter tonight."

The two elves nodded at each other and continued the cleaning of the Great Hall.

/\/\/\/\

Dobby's first break came when he heard the supper bell ring, and in the confusion in the kitchens, he slipped away to hide under the drooping tablecloth of the High Table. He secreted himself on the side near the Slytherin table, crouched down and peeked out from under the tablecloth. He zeroed in on Pansy Parkinson walking in next to Draco Malfoy.

She wasn't carrying the box, but she did have a bookbag with her. Draco did, as well. Draco's always-present "bodyguards" of sorts, Crabbe and Goyle, had no bookbags. As Draco and Pansy sat down next to each other, he saw her furtively pass something wrapped up in black cloth over to Draco, who smirked and quickly shoved it into his bookbag.

If Dobby could have cursed out loud like a human, he would have at that moment. Draco wouldn't let that item out of his sight, and if Dobby hadn't been around when Flipsy delivered whatever the item was, he probably wouldn't have even known it existed, since Draco would likely have been told how to mask the Dark signature from the object and keep a Professor from finding out about it.

He eased his way over to where Snape was sitting at the High Table and kept an ear out. As it turned out, he was just in time. "—need to see you after dinner tonight."

"Is it something we can discuss here?"

"No."

"Very well; come see me when you finish your meal."

Perhaps some spying on Severus Snape was called for. In the meantime, Dobby quietly transported himself to just outside the Headmaster's office, where he could watch to see if Snape came to the gargoyle.

/\/\/\/\

As it transpired, Snape did indeed go to see the Headmaster after the evening meal. Dobby, having materialised on the high beam again, had an unobstructed view from the semidarkness of that part of the Headmaster's office.

No sooner did Snape sit down opposite Dumbledore's desk before he barked, "Are the privacy wards up, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore looked at him askance before waving his wand. "Severus?"

"Where's the diary?"

"Safely locked up, where it has been for the last several months now, under protections I personally devised and which are known to no-one else," stated Dumbledore.

"Because I got an owl from Lucius Malfoy. He obliquely warned me about a plot to discredit you, and I wanted to make sure he hasn't found a way to get that artefact. Obviously, I'm to stay on the sidelines, et cetera, et cetera, and when you're forced out, he'll use his influence on the Board of Governors to have me made Deputy or full Headmaster." The sour look on Snape's face told Dobby what the man thought of former Master Lucius's underhanded dealings.

"Mm." Dumbledore reached for his small bowl of sherbet lemons and popped one in his mouth. Around the candy, he said, "Has Draco Malfoy received any owls?"

"Not as far as I can tell, aside from the usual sweets his mother sends him. I can keep an eye on Slytherin for you, but there's not much of a chance I can find a Dark object on his person; if Lucius has been at all smart, he'll already have taught Draco how to mask their signatures."

"And we can't go around searching students' mail or personal possessions on mere suspicion; the students wouldn't stand for it and neither would their parents. They _are _entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy," said Dumbledore flatly. "I am afraid, Severus, that we are just going to have to wait and see what happens next."

Snape made a noncommittal noise and stood up. Dumbledore also stood and said, "Thank you, Severus, and good night."

After the tiniest inclination of his head, Snape strode out of the office, prompting Dobby to return to his personal quarters as well.

In frustration, Dobby smacked his head against the wall. "Bad Dobby! Dobby has been unable to help protect Harry Potter!"

Unfortunately, thought Dobby as he rubbed his head, that hadn't made him feel that much better.

* * *

Author Notes: Well well _well!_


End file.
